


Resolution

by Ciardha



Series: Locksley-Mills saga [4]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Dimples Queen, Dragon Fairy, F/F, F/M, Hood-Mills Family, M/M, Multi, Outlaw Princess, Outlaw Queen - Freeform, Regal Believer, Regal Princess, Warrior Healer, outlaw peanut, regal peanut, violet believer - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-10-08 07:56:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 37,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10382067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ciardha/pseuds/Ciardha
Summary: Almost seven and half years have passed since the end of Love and Mischief.  Regina, Robin, their family and all of Storybrooke face their greatest challenge as Rumpelstiltskin plays out his grand plan.





	1. Chapter 1

Resolution Chapter 1

“Gamma!” Two young voices chorused. 

Regina looked up from her paperwork with a smile and pushed back from the desk slightly.

Dillon and Zita ran full force into her legs and giggled as she swooped both up into her lap.

Henry strolled into the mayor’s office and grinned. “Congratulations Mom, winning reelection again.”

“Thank you. How're the kids doing on their projects?”

Henry rolled his eyes. “Still complaining about how hard the research is.”

“If they only knew how hard actual research is.”

“Exactly.”

Henry was an English teacher for the senior class in Storybrooke High School. He and Violet had married shortly after they started college. Violet was now a pharmacist. Two years ago their twins Zita and Dillon were born. Roland was in his senior year in high school, and one of Henry’s students.

“How’s Roland doing in your class?” 

“Still top of class, even though he complains just like the rest of them.” Henry laughed. 

“Yes, I've heard all about how you’re tougher on him than the rest of the class. How that happens every time he gets a relative, other than me, teaching him anything.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve heard that one too. Aunt Rowena in art class, Grandma Snow in Middle School, now me. Only mom in magic class wasn’t unfair to him.”

Regina chuckled, “That’s because he knows how to use those puppy dog eyes with Robin and me.”

“Yeah he just pushes you both right over.” 

“Sadly, that’s true. Thankfully he’s a good boy despite that. And I recall you being pretty good at the same thing, so he picked it up from you.” Regina mock scolded.

“Well, Violet says I’m the same with these two hellions, so I guess I learned that from you.” Henry laughed.

“Speaking of hellions; Hope’s showing signs of my favorite stage of parenting, Grace won’t be far behind, I’m sure.” Regina sighed.

“You’ll do fine, Mom, just do what you did with Roland.”

“I know, but they’ll also be coming into their full potential of magic. They’re both going to be high level like my sister and me. Honestly, I’m a bit more worried about Grace. Hope’s temperament is calmer, a bit more cautious, Grace though is impulsive and her mixed element type Fire and Water is not an easy combination. We found out Hope does have low level Air along with Earth, but it’s low level where Grace’s both are high level.”

“Mom, if anyone can parent well, it’s you.”

“Well, I colossally messed up for a bit with you.”

“I was a self-righteous jerk.”

“You were a child, and I shouldn’t have lied to you about being adopted, and acted like you were delusional when you found out my past from the storybook.”

“You were scared I’d reject you, then I did. We both changed and it got better.”

“Yeah.” Regina smiled and then looked down and laughed; Dillon had unhooked the clasp of her necklace and tried to put it on himself. “Well, I wonder if you picked up thievery from your grandpa, Dillon.” Zita had found the soft rubber eraser and was thumping it on the desk in some kind of vaguely rhythmical pattern. “And you little miss; maybe your daddy needs to get you a drum to play.”

“Add to the chaos, huh?” Henry laughed 

“Regina!” Emma burst into the office; phone in hand “You better look at this.”

“Gamma Emma!” the twins shouted and jumped down from Regina’s lap and ran to their other grandmother.

“Still not used to that.” Emma muttered, then to the twins “Hey kiddos. Have to talk to your other grandma about something important now. We’ll play later.”

Henry picked up Regina’s necklace from the floor and handed it to her. He distracted the twins with a couple of toys, then stood between Regina and Emma to see what they were watching.

“Gold.” Regina muttered.

“He’s making his move.” Emma nodded.

They were watching a press conference in Washington DC. The new president was speaking, and among the people on stage behind him was Gold. Emma followed the presidential races much more than anyone else in Storybrooke. Most of the time, whoever became president had no effect on them. People wanted to vote for president though, even though their vote would never be counted. That vote was basically meaningless. Archie pointed out to Regina they could use it to track changes in cultural trends. So in that sense it wasn’t worthless. 

Regina hadn’t cared for the man who won this time; he seemed like a conman. Regina was glad he’d lost in Storybrooke, by a substantial amount. Seeing Gold on stage with him, Regina was sure he was a conman. Gold had to have the man completely in his pocket. The conman was being strung along by someone far better at the game.  
Regina suddenly felt a jolt, like an earthquake, but this was magical not terrestrial.

“Did you feel that?” Emma asked.

“Yeah. Gold’s done something. Our ley line was protected but whatever he’s done sent a tremor through our line and to us.”

“I felt it too.” Henry said.

“That means probably anyone with even low level magic felt it.”

“Get ready for your phone to start ringing. I better get back to the station; we’ll be getting calls too. “

“Henry, could you stop by Roland’s acting practice? Let him know I’ll probably not be able to pick him up.”

“I’ll drop him off at the house. Is it Robin’s day to pick up Hope and Grace?”

“Yes, thank goodness. I’ll call him and let him know what’s going on, but he probably felt it too.”

The phone rang at that point. 

Henry waved bye and then got Dillon and Zita’s attention. Regina waved back as Henry and the twins left.

******************************************************************************

Henry walked into the school with the twins. Roland had won the lead role in the senior class school play. Even though it was only early November, and play wasn’t till March, Ava was determined to make sure the kids had their lines down- even in their sleep. She had said that not just to the kids but in the faculty lounge.

Roland definitely had the talent and charisma for acting. Storybrooke just had two theaters, a small seasonal troop, and a professional theater. Roland had already played a support role two years ago with the seasonal troop, and a minor role at the professional theater this past summer. Mom was a bit worried about acting as his career; it wasn’t exactly the most stable one. But Robin was sure he’d be okay and kept Mom from worrying too much. Henry agreed with Robin, plus everyone seemed to like Roland; he had lots of friends, and basic survival skills. He'd do okay. It was strange watching how popular Roland was with his classmates. Henry had always preferred being by himself as a kid. He just had a few close friends his age, and most of those had been since he started teaching. Paige was his only friend from childhood, and she was a teacher as well.

As he turned down the hallway to the auditorium two students walked past him.

“Hey, Mr. Mills. Roland’s still in there. Ms. Zimmer cancelled practice because of that weird earthquake.”

“So you felt it too?”

“I didn’t, but Ms. Zimmer and a bunch of the other kids did.”

“I did!” The other student said with a grin. 

“Me too!” both Zita and Dillon chorused. Rebecka had said she could see magic potential in both of them. This was the first time they’d shown it. But Henry knew that meant they would probably be high level if they felt the magical jolt that young.

Roland was laughing with his girlfriend Eimi and boyfriend Douglas. Eimi was sitting on Douglas’s lap but flirting with Roland. The three had a really tight bond; maybe you could have two true loves at the same time... Henry remembered Fionn’s story about his aunt, which certainly sounded like she had two true loves at the same time, pretty similar to Roland. Eimi was half kitsune. Two years ago Inari had come back to Storybrooke, voluntarily that time, with Eimi. Eimi was the daughter of one of the other fox spirits. Her father had left her long ago at one of Inari’s temples in Japan. She had shown signs of inheriting kitsune magic and the other people in the village pressured him into leaving the “odd child” at the temple. She had been around 5 years old then. She went to the fox spirit realm and stayed with her mother for about a century in our world, but she only aged about 10 years in that time. She suddenly started feeling restless and unhappy in the fox spirit realm...

“This happens sometimes; we don’t know why. But it’s always best to bring them to somewhere on this world. They can decide whether they feel at home more here or in the fox spirit realm. I knew she wouldn’t be treated badly here because of her kitsune magic.” Inari had told them at the impromptu small town hall meeting at Granny’s.  
Regina walked over to Eimi and asked her directly “Do you want to stay here?”

Eimi looked surprised to be asked directly then nodded. “It feels better here. Uncle Inari is right. I don’t know why the fox spirit realm started feeling wrong for me; it just did.”

Granny spoke up. “I’ll take you in, if you want.”

Inari smiled “She’s the one I told you about”

Eimi grinned “The wolf lady. Yeah, I’d like that.”

Granny smirked “Just what did you tell her?”

Inari laughed.

“I will find out” Granny mock scolded.

That had been a bit over two years ago. Roland and Eimi were friends almost as soon as they met at that impromtu town hall meeting. Douglas became friends with them a few months later when that school year started. 

Douglas was the son of one of the Enchanted Forest royalty. A very young boy when the curse brought them all here. He had been very blunt about being glad the curse brought them here. His father had the kingdom in a constant state of war, as had his grandfather. It was a rigid, militaristic kingdom. Here his father was a car mechanic at the garage and his mom was a nurse. They were enraged when the curse broke and they remembered their Enchanted Forest past. They both still hated Mom because of the jobs the curse had given them the skills for. Douglas hadn’t had an easy childhood since the curse broke. Then he’d been thrown out of the house when his parents discovered he was close with Roland. He lived with foster parents now. Henry had met them, they were nice enough, but a fairly elderly couple. Douglas was taking care of them as much as they were him. Douglas didn’t seem to mind; besides acting he was also thinking about doing home healthcare for the elderly and disabled. 

Eimi and Roland were completely focused on acting. Like Roland both Eimi and Douglas had a moderate level of magic. That had also been an issue with Douglas’ parents. They hated all magic, even fairies. His foster parents were happy with his magic; he was one of the children that had developed healing magic. Douglass was happy to help them live with far less pain. 

Roland spoke, bringing Henry’s thoughts back to the present. “So does Mom know what caused the magic earthquake?”  
Henry looked around and saw Ava and the other students had left, “Sort of. My other grandfather did something. It hit against our ley line.”

“Mr. Gold’s done something with magic, wherever he is?” Douglas asked. 

“Yeah. That’s all we know right now.”

****************************************************************************

The next evening there was an emergency meeting at Regina and Robin’s house.

Emma and Henry had searched online to find any information about Gold.

“Checked the legal records. He owns multiple houses, and not just in the US.” Emma stated.

“How’d he get that kind of money? Never mind, I can guess.” Regina responded.

“This isn’t the first politician he’s advised. There’s been at least ten, all over the world. This is the first one he’s been out in the open.” Henry said.

“He wanted us to see him.” Regina said grimacing. “Wanted us to know how powerful he is.”

“What did he do with the ley line?” Roland asked.

“Storybrooke’s? Nothing. It isn’t useful to him. But we think he pulled power from all the ones he has access to, at once. Not to the point of draining them, but pulling a little on so many at once caused the magical earthquake on ours.”

“A sudden shock to the system.” Emma commented.

“Yes. But Gold’s cunning and knows the rules. He can bend them to the breaking point and know he can get away with it. Even if he’s done what we’ve guessed he’ll probably get away with it. But I’m betting all those Guardians are on high alert now, probably preparing for some kind of battle with Gold.”

“So this was just a first strike, Mom?” Henry asked.

“Likely. My guess is he’ll wait to do that again after the ley lines rebalance the energy. If he does it that way he could potentially have near unlimited magical power reserves.”

“He’s trying to make himself a god.” Belle said sadly. “I see the pieces now. But why would he take Bae away?”

“Her magic potential. He can draw on it, perhaps in a less destructive way than Zelena did with Neal.” Regina stated.  
“We can’t let him do that.” David said.

“I won’t let him.” Belle wrapped her arms around her daughter protectively. Bae was sitting next to her mother on the couch. 

“Why would daddy hurt me like how Neal was?” Bae looked heartbroken.

Regina looked at her gently. “We hope he won’t, that he’ll remember you are his child, that his power madness hasn’t gone that far. But we’ll all protect you.” Regina glanced at her own young daughters. This was the first time the three girls, and also Snow and Charming’s son Neal, were included in one these emergency meetings. Bae and Grace were both over a month from their eleventh birthdays, but this was about Bae’s father and Grace would have pitched a fit if she’d been excluded and probably sneaked down anyway. Better to just include her as well. 

Hope and Grace both looked a bit scared; Regina knew stories circulated among the children of Mr. Gold as terrifying monster of a man. No one was terribly inclined to refute the stories, better the children be wary of him. Even Belle didn’t refute them to anyone but her daughter. Some of the stories were actually true, other just slightly embellished; only a few were just wild tales the children had made up. 

Roland had a very real terrifying memory of Gold targeting him at only five years old. He never spoke of that moment but when she looked over at Roland, sitting on the floor with Eimi and Douglass, she could tell he hadn’t forgotten it. His expression was so much like Robin’s when he was barely containing his rage. Roland had no tolerance for bullying of children by adults. The one time Roland got in serious trouble in school was when he was twelve; he struck a teacher who was screaming at another child. Roland was suspended for three days. Regina did tell Roland striking the teacher was wrong. But she had also used her position as mayor to make sure the screaming incident was investigated. The teacher had to take anger management classes, then voluntarily quit at the end of the school year.

“What’s our plan, Mom?” Henry asked.

“Try to stop Gold from taking Bae from Storybrooke, if he does come here. Emma and I are the ones strongest in magic and we’re practiced in combining magic-“

“That should make you last line of defense, not first.” Killian commented.

“I agree. “ Regina said “It’s Emma you’ll have to convince on that point.”

“We should be first because we have the best chance of stopping him.”

“Didn’t you hear Regina; Crocodile has made himself practically a god. If even both of you try to go up against him first, he’ll take both of you out, then he’ll just breeze through the rest of us and get his kid.”

“I’m loathe to say it” Regina’s mouth quirked in a brief smile, showing she meant that in a more joking than serious manner, “but he’s right, Emma. We have to be the last line, so that if he does take it to that level, he’ll at least be worn down a little before he gets to us.”

“Alright, I get it.” Emma muttered.

“But the first line does need to be a strong magic user, one who knows Gold’s tactics well.”

“That would be me.” Maleficent stated.

“And me.” Tinkerbelle said firmly. 

“Okay, we’ll work out the rest depending on when and where he strikes. We know he’ll have to pass the town line first though.”

“It’s possible he could try during the school day when he knows neither Regina nor me will be nearby.” Emma said.

“It’s a time of day Bae won’t be near Belle either, so she won’t be able to try to persuade him not to.”

“In my dream I was there.” Belle disagreed.

“The dreams are a possibility of what could happen. Were you at home, the shop or the library?”

“Home. Rumple used the excuse of wanting to visit.”

“That’s probable too; you’d be isolated.”

“I live close.” Douglas spoke up. His foster parents’ apartment was just a street over.

“We’re too.” Snow said “Both our apartment and the sheriff’s station. “

“My clinic is close by too.” Rebecka stated.

“The mayor’s office isn’t too far either.” Regina said. 

“If he comes to school I’ll be close by, as will Roland, Douglas and Eimi” Henry said.

“Don’t try to fight him, just message everyone.” Regina replied to Henry and looked at Roland to make sure he knew she was speaking to him as well. She was glad all three levels of the school were right next to each other but neither Henry or Roland or his boyfriend and girlfriend were any kind of trained magical fighters. 

“I’m his grandson; I might be able to reason with him.”

Regina, at first, was going to say “don’t even try” but she saw the set look on his face and knew he would try, give his grandfather one last chance to make the right decision. “Okay.” She said reluctantly. But don’t try to get in his way; he’ll see that as a threat, and grandson or not, he’ll hurt you.”

“I know mom.”

“Mama,” Grace piped up “I’m in the same class as Bae. What if he gets to the class?”

“Send me a text right away. Stay away from him. But if he acts friendly and speaks to you, you can talk to him. But text me first.” 

“Okay.” 

“Text me too.” Hope said worriedly. 

Grace nodded.

Despite the circumstances, Regina smiled at Hope’s protective urge toward her little sister. The girls still were very close, and protective 0f each other. 

“If you have time, text Roland and Henry as well. They’ll be closest. If you can text me as well. But your priority is your mother and Henry. Like Henry said, he is Gold’s grandson; he might be able to reason with him. Your mother is powerful and she understands Gold’s tactics best. “Robin said.

“What about me? Can I text anyone?” Bae asked.

“Your mother. I’m sure he’ll expect you to, if he shows up unannounced. Just text your mom and tell her your dad is here.” Emma said.

“Yeah. Let me handle texting Emma and Regina. Just text me.” Belle agreed.

Bae anxiously said “Okay.”

“We don’t know when, or even if, for certain he’ll come here. But at least we’ve figured out a start of a plan tonight. I don’t think it will be right away though. He prefers to plan long term. But we shouldn’t assume we have plenty of time, or get slack.” Regina advised.

“So how often do you think we should meet on this, Regina?” Snow asked.

“Gold’s enough of a threat I think we should meet weekly, like we did back during the missing year.”

“How do we do that without people finding out and getting panicked?” David questioned. 

“We’ll have to have a town hall meeting sometime. Gold’s not being subtle anymore with what he’s doing. If we’ve figured it out, others are going to as well. “Regina replied. “Granny is one.”

“Do you want me to talk to her about it?” Eimi asked.

“Yes. She’ll probably want to be in on the meetings from now on once she knows.”

“We included her in the missing year.” Snow reminded Regina.

“We did. And if Eimi’s involved then Granny probably should be too.” Regina agreed. “As for the town hall, I think we should watch for Gold’s next move. If he makes another blatant move, then we schedule the town hall for the next weekend. We’ll focus on what he’s doing, not the potential threat to Bae.

“That’s probably a good idea. Keep them from panicking, but let them know we’re concerned about what Gold is doing, and have plans on keeping Storybrooke safe.” David said.

“So we watch what Gold does for now.” Robin said. 

“Yes.” Regina replied. “For now I think that’s all we can do.”

“Other than plan out what we’re going to say at the town hall, and who‘s going to talk.” Robin replied. “You, it goes without saying.”

“Emma and David” Snow said.

“You as well” Regina looked at Snow.

“Robin should too.” Henry said.

“And you as the author, should as well” Robin replied.

“Maybe I could too.” Belle said.

“Only if you feel comfortable. No one here will judge you if you can’t” Regina said kindly.

“Thank you. But I understand Rumple best. I might be able to say something that could help.”

“We definitely need your help in anything about this.” Emma said. 

“Is it okay if I tell Mom and Dad what we know?” Roberta said. Rowena and Wilfred, and her brothers Matthew and Cedric hadn’t come to the meeting. Wilfred was working the late shift as a stockroom manager at the hardware store and Rowena was firing the kids’ pottery projects in the school kiln. She preferred to do that in the evenings. Matthew was studying for exams in his college classes. All three preferred living more normal civilian lives. Matthew still had some interest in adventures and magic, though, but he was consumed by his college classes. Cedric was just a little kid, over two years younger than Grace. None of them had magic either. She was the only one. Roberta had felt like she more belonged to her Uncle Robin’s family, they all had magic, even Uncle Robin, a bit. 

“Definitely do.” Robin smiled and looked at his watch, “Best be getting you back home to my sister, she’s probably worried the meeting run this late.”

“Yeah, she’ll probably be imagining all kinds of terrible things; she’s a huge worry wart.” Roberta grinned “Plus she’ll lecture me about getting enough sleep for school tomorrow.”

Robin laughed, then looked over at Roland, Eimi and Douglas “I can drop you off too.”

“Thanks, Mr. Locksley.” Eimi said “Granny will complain if I stay out much later than this on a school night.”

“Yeah school.” Douglas sighed and rolled his eyes, then more seriously added. “My foster parents are probably worried too, and sometimes they get real tired and need to go to bed early. I better go now.”

“We better go too Moms, Robin, grandma, grandpa, everyone…” Henry said looking around the room. “Won’t go too well if Mr. Mills falls asleep during class.” He grinned. 

“I’ve the early shift at the pharmacy too, and tomorrow’s the busiest day of the week, usually. “ Violet added.

“Same goes for me, Henry.” Snow said with smile. “It’s past Neal’s bedtime as well” 

“But mom, I’m not sleepy” the eleven year old pouted, but his droopy eyelids gave lie to that.

“We’ll have some popcorn when we get home and play one computer game, but them we all need to go to bed. Mom and me too. Taking the first patrol in the morning, okay?” David reasoned with his son.

“Okay.” Neal replied grudgingly.

“Can we have popcorn too mama, daddy?” Hope pleaded.

“Please?” Grace chimed in.

“I suppose so. But when your father gets back from dropping off Eimi, Douglas and Roberta, it’s time for bed.’  
The girls nodded.

“We’ll go on too, Rebecka said as Mulan and she stood up. “The clinic needs to open bright and early.” Baby Xian had slept through the entire meeting in the snugli Rebecka wore; not even waking when Rebecka stood up to leave.

As they walked to the door, following Robin, Mulan said “I don’t have magic, but I have a connection to The Dragon. When we met he said sometime I would need to call on him and he could help me. I think he meant now.”

Robin looked back at Mulan. “If you know how to get in touch with him, we could certainly use his help.”

Mulan nodded. “I will.”

“Well, Swan looks like it’s time for us to shove off too.” Killian said. He turned to Belle, who was readying to leave with a worried but sleepy Bae. “If anything in my history of dealing with him keeps him from taking your little girl you’ve got it.” 

“Thank you.” 

“Regina, I have a longer history with Gold than you do, I’ll be thinking on anything that might stop this.” Maleficent said as she and Tinkerbelle readied to leave. 

Tinkerbelle was hugged Hope and Grace as she gently talked to them. “Remember, I’m your fairy godmother, so even if you just write my name and think real hard that you want me there, I’ll hear you. Maleficent and I will be watching the school, doing what we can to keep you and Bae safe.” 

The girls nodded solemnly and hugged her back before she left.

Roland walked out to the car with Eimi and Douglas. The three group hugged with a laugh. Then his companions climbed into the back seat of the SUV while Roberta got in the front passenger seat. 

Roberta was in the class after Roland and his friends. The four of them sometimes ate together at lunch. Roberta was somewhat in awe of them, they seemed so comfortable with themselves and funny. She was still a bit shyer, but enjoyed being part of their lunch time crew. Henry said she was more like him. She kind of wished teachers could eat lunch with the kids, because on the days she didn’t eat lunch with Roland and his friends she’d eat alone, or with her one best friend. She wished Henry could because he always listened and gave good advice. He and Violet seemed so grown up now, careers, kids and all. She still felt uncertain about what she wanted to do. She liked tutoring Neal in magic, so maybe she could teach like mom, Henry, his grandma and even Aunt Regina. 

“Deep thoughts?” Robin said to Roberta, after he dropped off Eimi and Douglas. 

“Yeah kinda. Not about the stuff we talked about tonight though.”

“Do you need advice or just want to talk?”

“Not sure.”

Robin nodded.

“I’m not sure what I want to do after school. Roland and Matthew already knew before they were my age. And I think Henry did too?”

“Kind of, but he was a bit uncertain until he started his senior year. You’re in your junior year, so you aren’t behind in any way. Do you have any vague ideas?”

“Kinda. I like tutoring Neal in magic.”

“So a teacher perhaps?”

“Maybe. But I’m not sure I like all that school structure. I like more like what Aunt Regina does.”

“Ah, she’ll be glad to hear that, one of her former students wants to follow in her footsteps”

“Really? “

“Absolutely. And a plus you have an element magic that neither she nor your cousins have.”

“So you think I should talk to Aunt Regina about helping her out in the weekly magic class once I graduate?”

“Definitely.” Robin smiled. His sister was going to tease him about how Roberta was so much his namesake she might as well be his daughter. He knew Roberta felt a bit like the odd one out because she had a magical ability and no one else did in her immediate family. Roberta and Wilfred had never done a thing to make her feel that way. It was just the circumstances. He was glad to have been reunited with his little sister for all kinds of reasons. Being a relative that had magic too so Roberta wouldn’t feel so alone was one of them. Rowena and Wilfred often talked to Regina and himself about how to parent a magical child. The simple answer was basically the same as any child, just with support for their growing abilities, just like any talented child.


	2. Resolution chapter 2

Resolution Chapter 2

On the ride back home Henry glanced back at the twins. Out like lights. Mom had entertained them with some magic lights play before the meeting. It was like the laser light and their cat. He grinned. Wore them out so that they slept through the meeting, and even through the process of getting them from the bedroom to the car seats. Magic, oh yeah, he meant to tell Violet about the twins sensing grandpa’s magic yesterday... “Violet?”

“Hmm?” She answered slightly preoccupied, paying attention to her driving.

“Yesterday, when grandpa made the magic earthquake, Zita and Dillion-“

“Sensed it?”

“How’d you guess?”

“Rebecka told me when I brought them in for their vaccinations last time; their magic potential was active. They’re so young though it’s just receptive right now.”

“You didn’t tell me.”

“Sorry. Since Rebecka said they’re just receptive. I forgot all about it until just now.”

“Okay.” Henry was slightly annoyed. He’d felt guilty about forgetting to tell her for a day. She’d found out almost a year ago and forgotten. So they’d had an active potential since they were eighteen months. Maybe it wasn’t a big deal she’d forgotten. This was the first time they’d shown it, and they were just receptive. Wonder if mom sensed it when she was playing with the twins. Mom said when she taught the magic class that most high level magic users can sense other strong magic users. Zita and Dillon likely would be high level magic users, but right now their magic ability was passive- sensing magic but not able to use it. That must have made mom’s light show game extra exciting to them, he smiled.

“So, you think we should tell Regina and Robin?”

“Yeah, mom and Robin are supposed to have a soul bond with them, so of all the grandparents they need to know. Plus they’re experienced with raising kids with magic.”

Violet laughed. “Remember when Hope figured out how to use her magic to cheat on that computer game she and Roland were playing?”

Henry grinned. “Robin had to explain to a six year old about how being good and living by a code means not cheating, including with her magic. She didn’t realize her fingers were glowing from using magic and everyone could see she’d cheated.”

“Roland misused his some too.”

“Yep, Robin hadn’t caught it, but mom did. He wasn’t really that conscious he was doing it. He was using his charisma to try to get things. When mom talked to him about it he was embarrassed and worried Robin would be disappointed in him. Mom and Robin taught him how to use it the right way. And look at how popular he is. That’s not misusing the power, it’s just his charisma. There’s something with Eimi, Douglas and him too.”

“I noticed that too, and we’re both low level. So you think they could be some kind of true love trio or something?”

“Yeah. Remember Fionn telling us about his aunt? How she had a husband and a partner and the three were all kind of bonded to each other?”

“Yeah.”

“I think the same thing is going on with Roland, Eimi and Douglas.”

*****************************************************************************************************

When they got home Violet carried in Zita while Henry carried in Dillon. They didn’t look much like twins size wise. Zita was tiny and Dillon was large. Zita was tenth percentile for her age, while Dillon was ninetieth. Zita was likely going to be small like Hank said the women on his side of the family had been. Hank was short too, even shorter than Mr. Gold. Dillon was probably going to be tall like Grandpa David. Dillon was over four inches taller and ten pounds heavier than Zita. But in hair and features it was obvious they were siblings, both had nearly the same shade of dark brown hair and eyes.

Zita, the lighter sleeper of the twins, woke up as Violet walked up the steps carrying her. “Down, Mama” she squirmed slightly.

“As soon as we get inside wiggle worm.” 

Zita giggled and squirmed more. 

Henry unlocked the door with his free hand. Dillon finally woke up from the light jostling he got as Henry opened the door. He began to squirm too “Down. Want Down.” 

Violet and Henry let the kids loose once Violet locked the door. They promptly ran the circle around the staircase to the second floor, shrieking, chasing each other. That was their safe spot to run, so Violet and Henry let the twins play while they went into the living room. Henry decided to check if he could find anything more online about what his grandfather was doing, and Violet turned on a kid’s movie, to help them wind back down so they could all get to bed soon. The music from the movie opener soon brought Zita and Dillon into the room.

They were almost two and a half now. Violet had literally conceived the twins the first week he had started teaching. The two little souls had waited as they promised, but the first moment they were able to come into this world, they did. It had worked out well, though. They were born a few days after the school’s summer break had started. Violet took maternity leave, and he was home as well most days. For their first three months. 

During that time, when the babies were asleep, he started working on what might be a lifelong project- reading and organizing the storybooks. Their house was the old apprentice’s home with the “secret “ room storing the storybooks. It had been the logical choice. So many people had pitched in to help them make a down payment on the house it was half paid for when moved in. Even his paternal grandfather said he owed it to his grandson, no strings attached. Belle said it was probably what was left of his conscious wanting to make up for what he’d done. Henry agreed; there was still a trace of humanity left in his grandfather’s soul.

Regina and Robin had insisted they would watch the babies during work hours, or any time Henry and Violet needed a night out. Henry thought it would be his mom watching the twins in the mayor’s office, due to the nature of Robin’s job; but he wanted to watch them in the ranger’s station just as much. Robin made it “paperwork days”, so he could stay in the office. Mom teased Robin that the rangers’ office paperwork had never been so promptly done. 

Once the twins turned two, they became much more active. Mom wanted to keep watching them, but Robin reminded her of what had happened with Hope and Grace. Mom grudgingly gave in. But said she still wanted Henry to stop by with them on the way home, at least once a week. He made sure it was twice a week. Knowing Robin, even though he hadn’t “presumed” to ask, Henry made sure to stop by the ranger’s station once a week with Zita and Dillon. Henry also knew they both spent their lunch hour together with the twins once a week. Mom and Robin were very enthusiastic grandparents. He knew it wasn’t just because of the bond they automatically had with the twins, it was just their nature.

*****************************************************************************************

The next evening Regina called Henry. “Well, I knew it was coming. Hope is upset about something that happened in school and refuses to tell me or Robin. She wants to talk to you.”

“Over the phone?”

“No. She doesn’t want us to hear. Not even Grace can get anything out of her, and now Grace is upset because she thinks Hope is mad at her about something. Which made Hope upset, she told Grace it wasn’t her, but not in the nicest way. Grace is crying in the girl’s bedroom, and Hope is giving us the sullen silent treatment in the living room.”

“Okay, let me tell Violet what’s going on and I’ll be right over.”

Regina hadn’t added Hope had also screamed at Roland to leave her alone as soon as she walked in the door. Regina had picked both girls up. Hope had been subdued but otherwise normal on the drive home, but had snapped as soon as she saw her brother. That had set off the rest of the fireworks this evening.

******************************************************************************************************

As soon as Henry got the car on the road toward his house Hope said angrily “Did you know?”

Henry knew “about what?” that he almost said, would just make her more upset, so he calmly asked “What awful thing did you find out today?”

“You know how mama said, that even though we didn’t grow inside her like Grace, she loved us all equally?”

“Yeah.” Henry smiled, remembering that moment, how mom made sure Hope knew that she had a different birth mother. But put the kindest spin possible on Hope’s conception.

“You know how she said Roland and my birth moms had died when we were real tiny? Roland remembered his but I was just a baby when my birth mom died?”

“Yeah.” Henry had a sinking suspicion he knew where this was going...

“Mom and Dad didn’t tell me how I was born!” Hope cried in angered anguish.

“What did you hear?”

“Phillip told me! I hate him! He said my birth mom was mom’s older sister and she raped my daddy so she’d have a baby because she hated mom! Phillip said he bet I’d be just like my birth mom Zelena- the wicked witch!”

Inwardly Henry groaned. Phillip Junior. Aurora and Phillip’s son. Of course it would be him. The kid was a spoiled brat and a bully. Demanded the other kids in his class call him Phillip the Second, like he was a king. Neal was terrified of him. Phillip and Hope had fought numerous times, usually just words, but Henry knew there had been one physical fight, which he heard Hope had won. Probably why there likely hadn’t been more of them. Phillip knew he couldn’t bully Hope physically, and Hope wasn’t even as much a fighter as Grace. But Hope could be sensitive, and Phillip had struck at her most vulnerable point today. 

“No, you won’t be like Zelena. You’re nothing like her.” Looked nothing like her either. Eyes still the same color as Robin’s, hair color like her Aunt Rowena, and that kinky curly hair from who knows where. Roland had hair like that, but he’d got that from Marion’s side. Zelena and Cora’s hair were wavy as was Rowena and all three of her kids, although Roberta’s was straighter and brown like Robin’s. Mom’s hair got curly like Hope’s when it was really humid, but she got that from her father’s side. Mom used to try to always keep it “tamed”, but once they saw how curly Hope’s hair was, Mom sometimes let hers show. Henry realized now that was so Hope would see other people in her family had that curly hair. He wondered if that was why Roland wore his hair long enough his curls showed too. The two squabbled like “normal siblings” according to Archie, but Roland could also be deeply protective of both Hope and Grace.

“You knew her?” Hope said, calming.

“Yeah. Zelena got better near the end. She did try to be a mom to you, as much as she could. She had a lot more problems staying good than mom though, but she never consciously tried to hurt you. I think she really wanted to have a kid, she just didn’t know the right way to do it. Plus she was psychotically jealous that Cora abandoned her as a baby and raised our mom.”

“But Grandma Cora was terrible to mom.”

“That’s what mom didn’t understand. Zelena was jealous of mom being physically and mentally abused by their own mother? It doesn’t make sense to me.”

“Yeah, me either. But my birth mom really did that to daddy?”

“Yeah, sorry. It was rough for Roland when he found out too. “ Back then Henry had kind of thought it was a mistake to wipe Roland’s memories of the weeks “Marlena” was around into his subconscious. But Mom and Robin were both really traumatized by what Zelena had done and just wanted to protect Roland. So he hadn’t said anything. As a father, he now understood their impulse. When Roland was around twelve he started having nightmares that mom and Robin knew came from his subconscious memories of that time. They had to let him have those memories back. He was angry at mom and Robin for a couple of weeks. Archie talked to Roland and got him to understand why. Everyone was relieved that Roland hadn’t been angry at Hope. Roland said something more perceptive than he probably would have at Roland’s age. “Hope can’t help who her birth mom was; just like our mom can’t help Grandma Cora was her mom.” Roland had never met Grandma Cora. Henry had just that time she’d been in Storybrooke, before Grandma Snow killed her with that spell candle. But mom had talked some about her in the family therapy session with Archie, and some of it was in the storybook too.

“How did my birth mom-“

Henry could guess Hope’s question “Zelena did it by a magical glamour. She pretended to be Roland’s birth mom brought back by time travel.”

Hope’s eyes widened in shock. “Does Roland hate me?”

“No. He knows you were an innocent victim, just like him.”

“But we fight all the time.”

“That’s because you’re siblings. If you and Grace were further apart I bet you’d squabble all the time too.”

“But you and Roland didn’t fight.”

“That’s because there were too many years between us; plus we’d both been only kids. I thought it was great having a little brother, and little sisters too.” Henry smiled.

“And Roland having a big brother.”

“Oh he adored both you and Grace too when you were babies.”

“Really?”

“Yep. You know how you were with Cedric when he was a baby?”

“Yeah, she grinned. “Or like being Aunt Hope to Zita and Dillon now.”

“Exactly.”

“Will Mama and Daddy be mad at me for acting bad?”

“No. Mom’s worried she failed you somehow, just like she messed up with me, briefly.”

“What happened?”

“Mom hid that I was adopted and about her past as the Evil Queen. Of course I acted like the world’s worst brat when I found out.”

“Ooh.”

“You, that was nothing. You were probably right to ask me first. You know how Mom blames herself for everything that goes wrong. “

“And Daddy gets all sad Mommy is doing that.”

“Until they work it out.”

“Yeah.”

“Ready to go back home?”

“Uh huh.”

Henry turned the car around at the next intersection. “Do you want me to talk to Mom and Robin or do you want to?”  
Henry glanced over and grinned when he saw she was biting her lip the same way mom did when she was uncertain. Hope’s birth mom might have been Zelena, but she was Regina Mill’s daughter in every other way.

“I don’t want to get mom and dad sad.”

“Okay, we’ll both talk to them. I’ll start and you can jump in any time you like.”

“Okay.”

It’d be okay. Henry could feel it. And that had been a big potential crisis. Probably the worst one for Hope. Well, until she started dating anyways... Then Henry chuckled inwardly. I think I just passed a dad test.


	3. Chapter 3

Resolution Chapter 3  
“Any damages you make, I’m sending the bill to your mother!” Granny sternly looked at Roland as the trio started up the stairs to Eimi’s room.

Roland laughed, he knew that was just Granny’s worrying coming out. All the adults were worried now. They’d had the first town hall meeting about Mr. Gold a couple of days ago. Yesterday mom had a special magic class in the evening at their house. Both current and former students were invited. The current students’ parents were also there. 

Tinkerbell, Rebecka, Mulan and her baby Xian were there too. Almost two years ago Mulan had decided she wanted to have a kid. She and Rebecka went to Boston to a sperm bank, then did an IVF in Storybrooke. Rebecka figured out a way with IVF and magic that they could have a kid with their DNA. Douglas helped out at Rebecka’s clinic sometimes so he was the first to hear about it. Other than Xian continuing to be pretty small for her age she was completely normal: walking, babbling and everything. She even had a really full head of hair, lots more than Hope or Grace had at one year old. Mulan didn’t have magic but she was Rebecka’s true love. She also had a connection the Dragon, a ley line guardian. She wanted to know what was going on. So she came to both the town hall and this. 

Granny knew they’d be practicing trying to merge their magic. Since they were mid-level it wasn’t as easy as high level. Their first attempt, which Granny had seen, had broken one of Regina’s vases. Regina had laughed and magically reassembled it. “You’ve figured out power, now you just need control.” She said with a smirk, as she got them to help putting it and other “breakables” in the coat closet.

It had been the one time she’d laughed freely last night. She’d walked into the room in what Roland knew was her “queen”, not “evil queen”, just “queen” mode. Regina was dressed all in black, very stiff posture, and a tightly controlled but unhappy expression. She gave off a don’t mess with me vibe.

He was the only one of the kids that had seen Regina regularly during the missing year. Regina was in queen mode most the time then, except with him. He knew now it was because he was a little boy and reminded her of Henry. She would change to less severe dress and would play with him sometimes. He would often find her in the evening and beg a bedtime story too. 

At first she was less severe with dad too. They even did a bit of what he knew now was flirting. But one day they came back from a trip and she was really angry at dad. She stayed that way until the second curse brought them back to Storybrooke with their memories of that year gone. Regina was ashamed he remembered her being mean and insulting to dad, and dad being sarcastic with Regina in return. She explained it was seeing dad’s lion tattoo and knowing that meant he was her soulmate. She was afraid of the soulmate bond then, so she tried to get dad to dislike her enough to leave. She’d been a bit afraid when she’d found out again in Storybrooke, but she was in better place emotionally, so she decided to be open to the bond. They soon fell in love with each other. A lot of bad things happened to them after that though, until they broke a curse on her family. Then we finally became a family for good. 

Roland knew when Regina was in queen mode she was worried and stressed. He could sense a lot of anxiety in the room, so he opened up his charisma magic and smiled at her. Roland saw the vein on her forehead flatten back out and her posture relax, she even looked down at her severe black pantsuit ruefully. Then she looked at him and smiled back and gave him a slight nod. This was a good way to use his magic. Regina whispered something to dad, who had been holding her hand, and he smiled and nodded too. Roland knew dad was using his low level magic the same way for Regina.

“As you know from the town hall meeting yesterday; we think Mr. Gold is doing something to control the United States government, behind the scenes. The rest of this world doesn’t know who he is or what kind of power he has, but we do.” Regina stated.

Henry walked to the front of the room. “We know he was a political advisor in at least ten other countries. He’s likely got some kind of control there too.”

Robin spoke then. “We still aren’t certain what, if any, plans he may have for us. But as most of you here know, we strongly suspect he will at least try to take his daughter away. Especially now that her magic is active. We know you have all said you want to help protect Bae and Storybrooke. We hope you don’t have to and I’ll repeat what Henry, Violet, Roland, Eimi, Douglas, Roberta, Neil, Hope, Grace and Bae have already heard. Do not attempt to block Mr. Gold’s way. He is dangerous and very powerful. But if he speaks to you, do reply as normally as you can.” Robin looked pointedly at Henry. “You can even attempt to convince him to let his daughter stay here, if you want to. I doubt if he’ll be surprised that you know that part of his plan. We know he has some ability to see into the future. He may be aware we know that part of his plan.”

Then Regina spoke again. “Why we are all here is, despite our warnings not to fight him, things may happen and you will have to. We are going to teach you how to combine your magics with one another. That will give some advantages you wouldn’t have if you went up against him alone. Some emotional bonds help with combining magics. Best are people who are soulmates like Robin and I, but soulmates are very rare. True loves are a bit more common so if you are work with them. Family bonds are next strongest, even more distant relations if you are friends too. Mentor/student works if you have a positive bond.” Regina thought of the negativity of her mentor/student bond with Rumpelstiltkin- dark magic and his manipulation. He’d never tried teaching her to combine magics. But when she briefly mentored Emma in light magic, something she barely knew more about than Emma, they’d managed a rough combination of magics a couple of times. The quest with Robin to end the curse on her family, and the hope to bring him back in some way, taught her much about combining magics. Avalon had a book that she had read. What had helped on her near ignorant first attempt with Emma was that they’d become friends. Regina smiled and continued, “Friendship bonds might be last on the list but they can be just as powerful as family bonds. Groups can be of any number, so get together with your group and we’ll start the training.”

Roberta was now a high level air element and offered to help Roland, Eimi and Douglas learn the basics of combining magics. She was already used to combining her air element magic with Neal’s though when she tutored him. It was looking like Neal would be a moderate level air element. Roland smirked, Neal also had a huge crush on Roberta. Roberta was a bit exasperated by the crush but it did make a helpful emotional bond between them. They waved her off to work more with Neil. Roland wanted Regina to teach them.

Bae was an air and fire element mix but her magic had just activated; she looked to be a moderate level. Maleficent and her daughter Lilly were both that combination on high level. Lilly was visiting Storybrooke but she didn’t like very many people; she wasn’t interested in helping out others either. Maleficent said she got a double dose of dragon shifter personality. Lilly’s father was a dragon shifter Maleficent had briefly been involved with. Dragon shifters tended to be antisocial but Lilly was doubly so. Emma was about the only person Lilly liked. She still hated Emma’s parents though. She tolerated Tinkerbell because she was with Maleficent, but she disliked kids. So when Lilly came for a visit Maleficent stayed away from town. Tinkerbelle had been at the town hall and came to this meeting but Maleficent didn‘t.  
Since Maleficent wasn’t going to be available for a while, Regina spoke to Belle offering to help Bae get used to her magic. She would work alongside Tinkerbelle. Tinkerbelle was already helping Hope and Grace along with Regina. Belle thought about it ,then cautiousl agreed. They’d had a couple of lessons. Regina had even suggested that Belle stay and watch. Belle didn’t have magic but it would be good for her to see what was going on in the lessons. As a parent and also because of her past, Regina understood the trust issues. 

When they broke into groups Grace and Hope both ran over to Bae. Tinkerbelle worked with them since she had already started to. Rebecka worked with Violet and Henry since Violet was not only her student but a friend. Regina moved between several groups but when Roland turned those puppy dog eyes on her she smirked and gave Eimi, Douglas and him the majority of her focus. 

Good thing too, Roland thought as they went into Eimi’s room the next day. They’d had the worst mishap of the evening with that vase. After that not only had Regina had the breakables put away but she put an anti shatter spell on the mirrors and windows too. 

“Remember what your mom said last night, since Douglas is a healer he has the best control.” Eimi smirked.  
“Yeah, me trying to control it was the mistake. My magic is a broadcast type. I was the worst choice of the three of us!” Roland laughed.

“But I’m just a beginner healer. I just started learning from Rebecka two years ago. Both of you started training when you were kids.” Douglas protested.

“But neither one of us have magic abilities that are strong on tight control. Mine’s a bit more focused than Roland’s but it’s still more group centered. So we start the connection, then you guide it. We can learn from you how to guide it better, but we’ll never be as good as you.” Eimi firmly stated.

“You’re talking like I’m a surgeon or something. I’m barely competent on basic stuff.”

Roland and Eimi laughed. “Barely competent! Your foster parents would disagree.” Eimi rolled her eyes.

“Yeah and I heard Rebecka praising you as one of her best students.” Roland bumped Douglas’s shoulder teasingly and laughed again.

“Okay, but I’m still a beginner. I think you two could get that good at least.”

“Eimi probably, but me, I doubt it.”

“Now who’s the one under rating himself? You had active magic at 6 years old. You’re close to high level.”

“So’s Eimi.” Roland retorted.

“But I’m just mediocre.” Douglas pulled a mock pout.

“Stop it Doug. You act like you’re joking around, but you’re actually bothered by it.” Eimi looked frustrated.

“Yeah, we both feel it.” Roland looked at Douglas kind eyed.

Douglas shrugged. He knew it wasn’t pity from them, they actually were bothered that he was. “It’s not that I feel inferior, it’s just I’m frustrated my potential isn’t as close to awesome as you two. I want to be able to do something to get myself there too.”

“I wouldn’t give up just yet, Doug. My mom was real late coming into her magic at all. And then got it twisted by Mr. Gold into darkness. She had to relearn most of what she was taught to really get back up to high level in light magic. And didn’t Rebecka say it wasn’t unusual for healers to hit their peak level late too?”

“Yeah. But even if she’s right-“

“I bet she is.” Eimi insisted.

“Even if she is, it’s frustrating, especially when I need it to be at its best now.” Douglas continued.

“So we practice. Like my mom showed us. Who knows, maybe this will bring out your full potential.”

Douglas shrugged, but a faint smile was there now. “Remember, I control this.”

“Yeah, yeah that’s what I told you.” Roland laughed.

Two hours later the trio trooped back down the stairs, grins on all their faces, they’d made progress, something seemed to click after about an hour of trying. It was too bad they were tired by then and only got this pathetic light that didn’t go anywhere, but everything worked perfect, or at least pretty good. Roland thought.

“You thundered down the stairs like a herd of elephants. Disturbing my customers.” Granny groused, but there was the ghost of a twinkle in her eyes. She hadn’t heard any crashes, and the smiles on the three’s faces meant they’d figured something out.

“Promise we didn’t mess anything up.” Roland grinned.

“Good! Then I won’t have to send a bill to you mother!” Then more kindly, “Your father coming to pick you up?”

“Yep. Should be here any- there he is.” Roland tightly embraced Douglas and Eimi then ran out to the SUV.

“So, any progress?” Robin asked.

Roland grinned “Yes! We finally figured out what we need to do combining our magics.”

“Great!” Robin had seen Roland’s smile as he ran to the car and figured there’d been some kind of breakthrough. “So, we don’t know how much time we might have before things start to happen. Regina and I decided this weekend we’d take a holiday. How would you like to go to the old Merry Men camp. You, my sister and her family and me. Regina is going with the girls, Belle, Bae, your brother and his family, your brother’s other mother and Killian, her parents and Neal to the beach.”

“The woods sounds like fun, can Eimi and Douglas come along too?”

“Sure, if it’s okay with Granny and Douglas’ foster parents. It’s kind of you to invite them.”

Roland chuckled.

“Ah. I forget sometimes how old you are. You’d already be considered an adult in the Enchanted Forest.” Robin smiled. 

“So I guess we should start considering Eimi and Douglas as family, hmm?”

“Yep.”

“Okay, consider it done. I think Regina will feel a bit better about your career, with you three living together. Especially since Douglas has a more reliable job as well, and Eimi has a backup job with Granny.”

“Oh is that why she’s worried? That I don’t have a backup job?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve been thinking. I like the woods like you. The Merry Men and you taught me survival stuff when I was a little kid, maybe I could-“

“Work with your father?”

“Uh huh.”

“I’d like that and Regina will be relieved.”

Roland laughed. “At least she’ll stop worrying about one thing, then!”


	4. chapter 4

Resolution Chapter 4

They lucked out for beach day. It was a rare balmy mid-November day, with a forecast high in the low 70’s. Warm enough to go without jackets; too cold to swim in the surf though. The warm breeze from the south was light. Tonight it was forecast for the temperature to plummet and the wind would shift around to the north and become gustier.  
Grace ran by Regina, Snow and Belle. Zita was riding Grace piggyback and shrieking with laughter. 

“They’re growing up” Snow said softly.

“Don’t remind me. Hope had her first adolescent meltdown last week.” Regina sighed.

“We’ve had a few with Neal already. The school night bedtime issue was the last one.”

“Well, Hope’s wasn’t so mundane.”

“What happened?”

“Oh, Phillip Junior informed Hope of the details of her conception.”

“Oh no. Oh Regina, you always get the dramatic meltdowns with your kids.”

“Well, Roland had some easy ones first before the big one.”

“The memory potion episode. I remember that.”

“Thankfully, Henry smoothed the worst of it out with Hope. Once she got back home, she was ready to ask us questions. It wasn’t easy for either Robin or I to talk about it. We asked her afterward if she wanted Grace to be told.”

“What did she say?”

“You know how close they are; of course she wanted Grace to know. She didn’t want Grace finding out the same way she had.”

“How did Grace react?”

“Very sweetly. She hugged her sister. We weren’t sure Grace would understand yet what had happened, but she surprised us.”

“They do tell the kids about good touches and bad touches.”

“Oh, she put it together from that. She’s a bright girl.”

“Bae hasn’t had a meltdown, but she’s having nightmares about her father. What’s hard is they’re things that could happen; I just don’t know what to do to make her not be so constantly frightened.”

“Today might help.” Snow pointed down to the shore where Bae was playing with Neal and Hope. It looked like a simple game of tag; the three were laughing as if they had no worries. Perhaps for the moment they didn’t.

Violet was helping Dillion make a sandcastle, but the bigger waves kept washing their efforts out. Dillion didn’t seem to care, the toddler chortled when the wave knocked the sand flat again. Regina let a faint smile lift a corner of her mouth. It must remind him of the blocks he and Zita would stack, and knock over. Regina glanced out and watched the Jolly Roger tack around the coastline. Henry was with Emma on Killian’s ship.

The old pirate was sailing his ship the short distance to its winter dock. Some years back he’d found a small sheltered cove within Storybrooke’s coastal boundaries. It was better than letting the tall ship dock at the harbor over the winter. Surprisingly, he’d actually filled out the proper permits to dock there. Regina figured that was Emma’s influence, since she still was one of Storybrooke’s sheriffs. Killian was taking the ship to its winter dock a bit early. There was a weather alert this morning about a possible nor’easter building and a chance that the storm would hit mid costal Maine. Since Storybrooke wasn’t on any map any forecasts had to be based on the nearest town that was. Chances were the worst would miss them. The spell the town continued to exist under protected them from the most extreme weather, generally. Some would come through, if it was bad enough outside the protective barrier.

Tomorrow morning Henry, Violet, the twins, she and the girls were going to the stables and ride out to Robin’s camp to join them for a campfire breakfast. It would be just the extended Locksley-Mills family. That now included Roland’s partners Eimi and Douglas. 

When Robin told her about Roland’s plans after graduation she’d been relieved. It wasn’t like she wouldn’t happily continue to support him between acting jobs, but she just wanted him to have a steadier backup job. She and Robin were fifty now and grandparents. One day, hopefully many years from now, they would die, but it could be sooner, better he have something lined up. Regina smiled, despite the morbid turn of her thoughts, she sounded so normal with those worries, the sort of thoughts any caring parent in the land without magic would have...

Hope, Neal and Bae were still playing tag, but Zita was now walking along the beach with Violet and Dillion. The toddlers were picking up little shells and showing them to their mother. Regina didn’t see Grace though. She stood up and looked around worriedly.

“What’s wrong, Regina?” Snow asked.

“Do you see Grace?”

“No.” Snow stood up. Do you want me to track her? I see her footprints there” She pointed toward the bottom of the stairs built into the hillside.

“It’s okay, Regina.” Belle stood up and pointed toward the hillside slightly down the beach, “She’s climbing back down the hill, looks like she was probably playing in the woods”

“She’s so her father’s daughter sometimes” Regina said exasperated. Actually both girls liked the woods, but Grace was as enthusiastic as Robin and Roland. But unlike their father and brother they also liked the beach, like her. Grace was a little adventurer, she really shouldn’t be surprised. Grace was the leader of the girls in that tendency. Hope would follow her, but Grace was the one who usually thought up the girls adventures. When they were younger Hope was always the leader, because she was the older one. Now though, it depended on what they were doing. 

Grace got the love of adventure from both Robin and her. Before mother had mostly shamed her out of it in her teens, she had gone on many an imaginary adventure with her favorite doll. Daddy would smile when she told him about those childish adventures, while mother would vaguely briefly pretend to listen, sometimes, when she was small, but then dismiss her with a “Mommy’s busy right now, why don’t you find your father and tell him your story?.” She eventually learned to not even bother finding her mother. When she was twelve, mother took her doll away and made her start taking lessons on how to be a lady. The only thing she was allowed to continue was horseback riding. She stopped even telling her father the imaginary adventures she daydreamed; mother told her that kind thing was childish. But secretly, when she rode out on Rocinante, she would imagine she was off on some grand adventure. Gradually, even those stories mostly faded away, as she tried to be the lady mother wanted her to be. But she still relished the freedom she had on horseback. Then she fell in love with the stable boy… Regina stopped those thoughts with a shake of her head, as Grace ran up to her with a grin.

“Mama! I saw a big owl in the woods!”

“So was it asleep or awake?” Regina asked.

“Awake! It went ‘whoo’ really low.”

“Might have been a great horned owl.” Snow smiled at Regina’s younger daughter. “Remember the lesson we had on all the different type birds around here?”

“Yeah.”

“So do you remember what the owl looked like?”

“Uh huh.”

Belle held out her phone to show a picture of an owl “Did it look like this?”

“Yes!”

“Well then it looks like you saw a Great Horned Owl. Maybe you could write about seeing the owl in your class journal assignment on Monday.” Snow said.

Grace nodded solemnly. Of the children, Grace was the least fond of school. Roland complained about getting relatives as teachers but actually he enjoyed school. Henry never complained about school, or no more than the usual teenager anyway, and he was a teacher now. Hope loved the science classes. But Grace just didn’t care for school. It wasn’t for lack of friends. While not Mr. Popularity like Roland, she was much more social than Henry or Hope. Her friends were her favorite part of school.   
***************************************************************************************************

Robin suspected Grace hated the heavily structured schedule. They had recently spoken about this problem and how it likely would be a problem now that she was entering adolescence.

“She’s like me. I always hated structure. I wanted to do things on my own schedule.” Robin sighed.

“So I guess we know what to expect for her adolescent meltdowns. It’ll be a change to have one that’s a normal thing.” Regina smirked.

“I’ll do my best to try to help her through it. I have a few ideas.”

“Good, at least this time we’ll be a bit prepared.”

“And as you said nothing due to magic, just normal adolescent rebellion.”

“What do you think we should try first, just in case the first meltdown happens around me rather than you?”

“I think a promise of a reward, if she can make herself ‘endure’ a ‘whole week’ of school.”

“So you think that’s what we’ll hear?”

“Yeah , it’s close to how I whined about sword practice to my instructor.”

“Oh, so is that why you chose the bow and arrow?”

“Yes, I hated fighting with a sword, and as you’ve seen, I’m still a lousy swordsman.” 

“That was the one part of mother’s regimen to make me into a queen that I enjoyed.”

“Hmm, probably because it was the one part where it wasn’t about restriction but about exerting yourself.”

“Yes! I wasn’t even thinking about fighting and possibly killing someone. It felt a bit like freedom when I could swing that sword around and dress more like the way I preferred. “ 

“Which explains why you incorporated leather pants into so many of your queenly outfits.” 

“I recall you saying after we got together you rather liked seeing my legs in those leather pants during the missing year. And I noticed the outfits you begged me to keep feature leather pants.” Regina smirked.

“Yes, they show off your assets rather well.” Robin said with lustful look. 

“Oh, I see, so it was about my ass in those pants, thief.” She laughed flirtatiously.

“Oh yes, I was quite devoted to saving your ass, milady.” He winked at her.  
***********************************************************************************

“Regina?” Snow asked

Regina got flustered at the directions of her thoughts and brought herself back to the present. “Yes?”

Snow laughed. “I think your mind was in forest, or at least on someone that is in the forest.”

“Um, so what was your question?”

“The children want to try practicing combining their magic, is it okay?”

“Sure. I can supervise.” She looked down at the shoreline, Neal, Bae and Hope cheered when Regina said yes. Grace was still standing beside her though and still had a solemn look on her face. Regina touched her shoulder and looked her in the eyes. “What is it sweetheart?”

“Mama, Bae and Neal both are air element, and Hope has air element too. I don’t. I have water and fire. “

“Oh and you aren’t sure you can work with them?

Grace nodded.

“You work with your sister, don’t you, and she has the opposite elements from you, right?”

“Uh huh.”

‘It won’t be much different working with Neal and Bae too. You and Bae are good friends too so that helps.”

“Okay.” Grace’s expression lightened and she ran down to the shoreline too.

A half hour later the four children had the beginnings of getting the combination to work. Regina noticed Grace was very focused on getting the combination right with Bae. 

Grace then gave voice to Regina’s suspicions “Bae and I are in the same class. If we can combine our magics maybe-“

“No, don’t try to fight Mr. Gold directly. Either of you.”

“But why are you teaching us then?” Grace cried in frustration.

“What I meant was don’t take the offensive, you know what that means?”

“Don’t start the fight.” Neal piped up.

“Yes, exactly.”

“Then what-“

“If, and only if, it looks like he will attack do you defend yourself. If you don’t look like you ‘ll fight him he’s less likely, especially children.”

“Mom?’ Hope asked. “I thought of something.”

“I’m listening.”

“What we could do is delay him, by throwing him off with something, so you could get there.”

“What are you proposing?”

“What if we didn’t hide that he scared us, but showed, without attacking, that we know how to combine magics?”

“Hope,” Belle said, “I think that sounds like a wonderful idea, what do you think Regina?”

Regina nodded. “It might work, if he does come to the school. It will intrigue him, especially if one of them is his daughter. That could give us enough time. Just be very careful.” She felt a stab of anxiety for her youngest child. Because if Gold did come to the school, he would head straight for the classroom Bae and Grace were in. 

“So are dads allowed or is this a moms and kids only day?” David said walking down the steps from the parking lot.

Snow laughed. “Of course you can join us David. Henry will be back any minute, so dads are allowed.”

“Yeah, Emma and Killian passed me walking out of Granny’s. Emma said they and Henry had sailed the Jolly Roger to its winter dock. Something about a nor’easter expected on Monday? If you’d said no, I was going to bribe you to include me with lunch” He held up a large takeout bag. 

That brought all the kids running up to him. Regina smirked that Hope and Grace were just as eager as Neal and the twins. Bae was a bit more restrained than the others, but she was still there too. 

“We packed lunches” Belle pointed to the four coolers sitting on a towel in the shade “But I think everyone will be happy to have some of yours too.”

“Especially Regina’s girls, I bet. I’m sure she packed very healthy lunches for all.” David teased, “But how would you girls like some fried chicken and potato salad?” 

Regina rolled her eyes at her girls’ squeals of delight, oh well, let them indulge for today.

“Mama can we?” They chorused.

“Yes, for today.” She was sure there was food in that takeout bag even worse than fried chicken and potato salad. She let the girls indulge once or twice a week, and Robin was right in with the kids, on allowing mild indulging fairly often. She was just as guilty with the twins. She and Robin would inevitably end up buying Zita and Dillion child sized deserts at Granny’s. But she did try to balance things out with healthy foods before.

“Hey Grandpa, you brought lunch, awesome!” Henry grinned.

Violet grumbled to Regina “I spent an hour last night figuring out what to bring and packing it.”

“You get used to it. Just let the twins indulge for the day. They’re young enough right now they won’t eat that much of what he brought. They’ll get hungry again later. They’ll eat the apple slices, at least, for a snack.”

“You knew I brought apple slices?”

“Family thing. I let Henry have them as snacks when he was a little boy. They’re sweet enough it tastes as good as an unhealthy sugary treat.”

“Oh, so that’s why Henry always suggests it for the twins snacks if I can’t think of something.”

“Stealth nutrition.” Regina smirked, then added “Robin said just to bring are whatever fruit or vegetables we want with breakfast tomorrow, so pack lightly.”

“Apples.” Violet laughed.  
***********************************************************************************************

Stan shouted out to Robin as Brian, Roberta and he arrived back at camp “Look at the size of the fish Roberta caught! I don’t think I’ve seen a bigger one in this river”

“Dad, I know you caught a bigger one this summer.” Roberta protested.

“Nonsense! This one is bigger!” 

Robin smiled at the returning family. Stan Kingfort had really turned his life around the last few years. The starting point was five years ago...   
***************************************************************************************************

Robin had found his sister’s ex-husband passed out drunk in a ravine. It was lucky it hadn’t rained lately or he might have drowned. As it was the man was covered in mud and starting to suffer from hypothermia. Robin drove him to the hospital. When Robin checked in on him after work, the hospital had admitted Stan for overnight observation.

“Thank you Robin.” 

“Part of my job.”

“Not driving me here, and making sure I was okay though.”

“You’re still family. You’re Matthew’s and Roberta’s father.”

“Some father. A pathetic drunk. You know what? I’m glad you found Wilford. He’s a much better man than me. He lost everything once and still kept himself together. I had everything most people would want and I drank myself out of it. My kids are ashamed of me, so’s Rowena. I never physically hurt her but I still made her life miserable by being this.”

“So how about doing something about it? I spent a few years drinking too much and I regret it still. But I finally decided I was sick of being drunk.”

“Me too. “

“Things are easier here than in our original land. There’s people who help with that problem.”

“I heard something about it, but I was afraid I would be so much of a drunk they would turn me away.”

“They won’t. I know the people who run Storybrooke’s AA chapter. You want to change, they’ll help.”

“I’ll go then. Could you talk to your friends though, first let them know that Stan the drunk is coming to the next meeting?”

“I’ll tell them Stan Kingfort is coming to the next meeting.”

 

Stan had been true to his word and gone. He was terrified when he walked in. Everyone knew who he was, Stan the drunk. When he stood up and said so, he was shocked when everyone else told him they were drunks too. He recognized a few he’d seen in the bars but there were others he was shocked were there. He would have never guessed they got drunk too much. Once he’d been sober three months Robin asked him if he would like working at the ranger’s station, they could use someone who liked to fish to check on all the lakes, rivers and streams in the woods. 

 

Stan’s sponsor was a man he vaguely remembered from the Enchanted Forest, Brian DeBois. They’d met at a few jousting tournaments while they were fostered out as children. They were serving as pages to their foster fathers. They’d boasted, as children do, as to who’s foster father was the better knight. But they’d also played when their official duties were done. Brian’s father had sent for him once he became an apprentice knight and they forgot about each other. Brian’s father was an abusive man. He left Brian with a raging self-loathing that caused him to lash out at others when he drank. That continued in Storybrooke until he was arrested for assault. 

David Nolan told him he was looking at as much as three years in jail, but then he’d told Brian. “Brian. I understand where your rage is coming from, my biological father was an alcoholic and the man became my adoptive father was a terrible man. There were times I used alcoholic to try to numb my pain.”

“Never works for long.”

“It doesn’t, sometimes it makes it worse. Like where you are now. But I know deep down you’re sick of this cycle.”

“Not so deep down right now.”

“Yeah, you’re not like Keith.”

“Thank goodness, that guy’s an asshole.”

“I think most people of this town share that opinion. But I’m going to suggest a couple of things to you that might help. Go talk to Archie about what your dad did and start going to AA meetings.”

“Does that really help?”

“I think so. And if you agree to try doing both and plead guilty, I’ll talk to the judge about reducing your sentence to probation-“

“And community service, right?”

“Exactly.”

“Okay.”

That was six years ago. Brian had been able to keep his job and the therapy helped deal with his past. Then a year later Stan started going to AA. Brian remembered him and quickly agreed to be his sponsor. Their childhood friendship was renewed.

 

Stan’s father had been proud of his becoming a knight and urged him to accept Rowena’s hand in marriage. He liked Rowena well enough and none of the other girls appealed to him. He’d known Cedric’s son Wilfred as well when they were growing up. He knew Wilfred liked Rowena. But then Wilfred disappeared. He and Rowena had married. At first, other than in the bedroom, it was fine. But as time went on and he never developed the feelings of desire he thought he should for Rowena, he grew more and more disappointed in himself and began to drink. At first it helped make him forget his self-loathing, but then drink came to matter more than anything else. He felt like even more a failure. He knew the fault was in him, not in her. She couldn’t have been more kind and supportive. 

He was stunned to realize the longer he was sober the more he felt attracted to Brian. After six months, and dreading rejection, he confessed his feelings. Brian’s reaction surprised him.

“You too? I’ve been afraid to say anything. You were married, have two kids. I’ve never been married no kids either.”

“I loved Rowena like a friend, but I never felt attracted to her. It was difficult, to pretend to be aroused. Drink helped me pretend at first. But after Roberta was born I just couldn’t at all. I felt such a failure as a husband. Rowena never said a harsh word, she assured me she was fine and maybe we were until my drinking took over everything else. But with you I feel what I thought I’d eventually learn to with Rowena.  
********************************************************************************************************

After his life was finally stable, he reached out to his kids. He apologized for being such a lousy dad to both of them. He discovered it was his daughter Roberta that liked to fish not his son Matthew. But Matthew was gay, like him. He’d just discovered he was, so they had long conversations about figuring out who you are. And Roberta was the one who went on the fishing trips. The first time he apologized again for being a lousy dad.

“I had no idea how to be a dad to a girl. I thought you’d like girly things like your mother. Your Uncle Robin was the one who told me how much you liked the family camping trips.”

“It’s lots of fun. And Uncle Robin and Aunt Regina raise their kids all the same, doesn’t matter if they are girls or boys.”

“They’re good parents.”

“You’re not a lousy dad now.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

 

Stan worked to mend the fence between Rowena and himself, and spoke with Wilfred, sober this time. “I truly am glad they found you, and you married her. Matthew and Roberta really like you. You’ve been a much better dad to them than I was.”

“I’m glad you don’t resent me.”

“No, Rowena and kids deserved better than me.”

“You’re doing a good job now. You’re back to being like the guy I knew when we were growing up. Before things went wrong; when were teenage boys trying to figure out who we were. I’m happy for you and Brian too. I heard you were friends when you were younger kids?”

“Yeah. I never knew how bad Brian’s dad was. We were both in our fostering out years then. Brian’s dad was much worse than Cedric.”

“Yeah, my dad just didn’t understand how to be a dad; he wasn’t purposely abusive like Rowena’s father or Brian’s father.”

Stan was surprised though, when he and Brian were invited to the family Christmas party Robin and Regina had every year.

Regina had repeated Robin’s words of nearly a year ago. “You’re family. You’re Roberta and Matthew’s father, Roland’s uncle, ex-brother-in-law to Robin, and he considers you a friend as well. Brian is your partner. You are back to being part of this family’s life. Of course you’re invited.”

 

From that point on Brian and he had been invited to all the holiday gatherings and family camping trips, including this one.   
**************************************************************************************************************

“That is a huge fish Roberta!” Rowena smiled at her daughter. “However did you keep it on the line?”

“Dad helped!”

“Wow!” Roland exclaimed “It’s almost as big as the wild turkey dad got.”

“We both caught, Roland.” Robin corrected

‘You did most of the work.” Roland laughed, “My arrow just dazed it.”

“Making it easier for me.” Robin ruffled his hair, like he did when Roland was a little kid.

“Alright, dad, we bought caught it.” Roland rolled his eyes, but smirked, showing he wasn’t that annoyed.

They ate the turkey and fish, along with the canned vegetables as a kind of stew that evening. Thankfully bears weren’t a normal part of the habitat, so they could let the leftovers simmer in the cabin overnight in the large slow cooker Robin borrowed from the house. He did have a skillet and pancake mix for more traditional breakfast food. No one was a vegetarian but some, like Henry and the twins weren’t keen on meat at breakfast. He’d picked a campsite with a cabin and basic amenities, like electric outlets, a fireplace and a bathroom since Matthew and his sister weren’t keen on camping out in tents, but enjoyed that kind of camping. It was Regina’s and Henry’s preference too, as long as the cabin had electricity, a bathroom, and preferably at least cots. This cabin didn’t have cots. It was going to be cold enough tonight everyone was sleeping in the cabin tonight. Close quarters even with just the eleven sleeping bags, and only one was a preadolescent child. 

Hmm, they may have to rent one of the two large cabins next time, the way this family kept growing. Robin thought with a small smile.   
*************************************************************************************

“Horsies!” Zita and Dillion squealed when they saw the two miniature ponies 

“One for each of you” Regina beamed, overjoyed at the twins excited reactions.

“Mom.” Henry sighed.

“What? I’m their grandma; I’m entitled to spoil them.” Regina smirked.

“But miniature ponies?”

“For their third birthday.”

“Over six months from now.”

“I was thinking about Christmas, but Zita’s still a bit small to ride yet. So for their third birthday. In the meantime they can get familiar with them, like pets.”

“Robin’s in on this too, isn’t he?”

“Of course. He and Marco are working on a pony cart. That might be ready by Christmas. They’re working on how to make it convert to a sleigh for when it snows.”

“And I suppose Roland and the girls are in on this as well.”

“Certainly. It’s a family gift.”

“Family gift, would that include-“

“Snow and David? No. I think they, Emma and probably Killian too, have something in the works though. “

Henry felt a headache coming on. Mom’s and Robin’s was a bit extravagant, but really he probably should have expected it. She got ponies for the girls when they were around three or four… But with grandma it could be anything. Whatever it was, it would probably be way too much. He doubted Emma would be able to restrain things.   
**********************************************************************************************

After the twins had fed the ponies carrots and petted them for a few minutes, everyone set off for the camp, Dillon riding with Henry and Zita with Violet.

Regina smiled at how well the girls rode. They had actually asked to compete in Storybrooke’s horse show a couple of years ago, and were very enthusiastic about taking classes. Grace had already won first place in the beginner’s level of the children’s completion last year. Hope had won first place this year in the children’s intermediate competition. 

Neither Henry or Roland were interested in competitive equestrian sports, but Violet competed in the adults’ advanced level. She loved the show jumping competition. 

As mayor and also an accomplished horsewoman Regina frequently was asked to lead the pre-competition “parade”. Robin would usually ride right behind her in his old Enchanted Forest clothes, with his bow and arrows as well. She teased him that he was the one that had started the fad for dressing up in Enchanted Forest type clothes on special occasions. It went over so well the first time, next year several others dressed in Enchanted Forest clothing. Regina, though, stuck with this word’s formal equestrian wear. Most of the mature adults did as well, including Snow, who competed in the advanced level dressage. As mayor Regina couldn’t compete but she was a judge on competitions with no family members- which was becoming fewer with the gradual expansion of the family! 

Emma would just watch the competition from the stands and enjoy being the embarrassing “Aunt Emma” to the girls- shouting encouragement during their competitions. “That’s what relatives do in this world.” Emma pointed out. So then Snow started doing it for the girls as well. Regina tried to be a bit more restrained during the girls competition but gave them enthusiastic hugs afterward. Robin fell somewhere in between, not shouting encouragement- he promised he wouldn’t embarrass his girls. But he’d excitedly hug Regina. Regina found she didn’t mind that at all! And it allowed her to surreptitiously get excited too. 

After they arrived and ate, Rowena and Wilfred took the younger children to the lake. Matthew went off for a hike with Stan and Brian. 

“So has there been any news?” Robin asked.

“There’s a blog I’ve started to follow” Henry began. “I think this person has some idea of what’s going on. She’s apparently found the same stuff I did. She seems to know someone who has some kind of connection to a last administration holdover. She’s made some a blog posts about the connections she’s found.”

“So she’s written about Gold?” Regina asked

“Yeah. Apparently he’s calling himself R. Gold, no first name, just an initial. He’s made a backstory with documentation. I found that a few days ago. Apparently so did she.”

“She’s in a lot of danger. She has no idea how powerful Gold is.” Regina replied.

“Yeah I replied anon and told her he was very dangerous and powerful. But she won’t know I mean magically as well as politically.”

“And there’s no way to warn anyone out there about that.” Robin frowned.

“The only thing that’s probably protecting her is she’s well known, but her regular readership is fairly small. Hopefully he won’t read her as a threat.” Henry looked worried. He liked this blogger. She seemed to be very genuine, and cared about her regular responders. 

“So it’s gotten to point perceptive people outside of Storybrooke are starting to notice. I doubt if Gold will read this blogger as a threat, as you said her known audience is small. But if a broadcast newscaster or a politician starts sounding alarms they might be in danger. Especially if they can’t be bribed to silence or agreement.” Regina stated.

“Do you think he’ll come for his daughter soon?” Robin glanced over at his daughters. He didn’t show it as overtly as Regina but he worried about his daughters, especially Grace. She was in the same class as Bae. Gold could come at any time. Belle’s dream pointed to him abducting Bae from home, but Robin feared it would be during the school day. 

“Not yet. I think he’ll come for her last. He’ll want his power base firmly in place. But that blog post might push him to put any other parts of his plan in motion. We need to keep a close watch on any news sources, even the disreputable ones.”

“Even the conspiracy theory blogs?” Henry looked stunned.

“Yes. Some might be people with trace magic abilities. They may sense Gold’s magic. Likely they’ll get the story wrong. But if they are writing about him in any way, it could warn us Gold’s pushing his plan forward.”

“There’s one guy, he’s not as weird as the others, and he’s known to have discovered real stuff that was going on… he’s more obscure, probably because he isn’t as weird.”

“Make him a priority. If he writes even a sentence about Gold, tell us immediately.”

“So you think we’ll be okay through Christmas?” Roland asked.

Regina looked thoughtful. “Yeah, I think through New Year’s. After that we really need to be on guard, especially if we find out he’s moving on his plans. Plan for both our normal lives and what we need to do.”


	5. chapter 5

Resolution Chapter 5

Regina looked around at her family gathered in the vault’s ground floor. It was the day of her father’s memorial. For years she had commemorated it on the day of her father’s death, as a kind of penance for what she’d done. She went alone, except for when Henry was too young to go to school. But now they all went on her father’s birthday. Robin suggested she change it to her father’s birthday and they all go. He said that on her father’s first memorial after the quest to end the curse on her family. She was hesitant and still did her time of penance alone. 

On that day, when she came up the stairs, she found Robin waiting for her with Roland and the girls. Roland was being helpful and playing with then ten month old Grace on the vault’s floor. Robin was bouncing Hope on his knees as they sat waiting for her. Henry was with his other mother because it was also Emma’s birthday. 

“Mama!” Hope squirmed on Robin’s lap. Robin let her down and she ran to Regina.

Regina squatted down and held out her arms “Hello baby.” 

Hope threw herself full force into her mother’s arms. Regina lost her balance a bit but rocked them both forward and smoothly got to her feet. Robin grinned at her quick and graceful recovery.

“I suppose this is your way of saying you’ll support me either way, but why don’t we try changing the date?”

“Perhaps.” Robin smirked.

“Okay.”

So one month later they returned to the vault, this time with Henry too.

“I’m glad we’re doing this mom. It’ll be better, and we all can be with you.” Henry said with a firm but encouraging look.

It had been better. So much better. Robin also suggested they start a new tradition. Instead of Regina’s usual quiet apology to her father, they each said something about Regina’s father. Grace and Hope were too young and Roland had never met him. Henry had in the underworld. Henry asked to go first.

“I only met Grandpa Henry that one time, but I was so glad I finally got to. I could see what a good and kind man he was and I’m proud I was named after him.”

Regina took a deep breath “Daddy, I brought my family this time. You were so glad to meet your namesake. I wish you could have spoken to Robin and met my other children.”

Robin cleared his throat. “Actually I did meet him, while I was gone from here.”

“You did?” Regina smiled tremulously. “What did he say?”

Robin chuckled “So I finally meet the man who-“

A warm voice spoke as a ghostly figure appeared “stole my daughter’s heart.”

“Daddy?” Regina looked wide eyed at the ghost of her father.

Robin grinned “To which I said ‘you can’t steal what was already given to you’ in this case, literally.”  
Regina laughed softly recalling her words to Robin those few years ago.

“They won’t let me stay long, but I had to let you know, please come to see me on my birthday, not the day I died. I also wanted to meet your other children.” He looked at Roland “So this is the ‘littlest Merry Man’ and my daughter’s ‘little knight’.”

Roland etched a bow like he’d seen his father do “Yes, your majesty!” Roland then gave one of his most adorable dimpled grins.

“Oh no, don’t call me your majesty, Roland, call me grandfather.”

“Grandpa?”

“Yes, exactly that.” 

“Okay Grandpa!” Roland said excitedly.

Regina realized Roland never knew a grandfather before, but he knew Henry had two. Now he had someone he could say was his grandfather and had actually spoken to him, even if it was just a ghost of him.

Then Regina’s father looked at Hope, standing with wide curious eyes, next to her father. “And your daddy calls you   
‘Peanut’.”

“You told him your nickname for her?” Regina rolled her eyes.

“Remember that was the only name I had for her when-“

“Sorry.” Regina felt ashamed. She had done her best to forget that awful time; apparently she had succeeded a bit too well.

Robin drew her into a side embrace. “It’s okay; I’ve tried to forget that time too.”

Hope nodded. “Gampa?”

“That’s right, I’m your Grandpa.”

She pointed to herself “Hope”

“Yes, I saw. You have quite a name, Hope Robyn Locksley-Mills.”

Hope giggled.

“I got to change my name too, grandpa!” Roland said excitedly “I’m Roland Hood Locksley-Mills!”

Prince Henry chuckled “So someone is going to continue the Hood name, hmm.”

“Yes!” Roland responded exuberantly. 

Then Prince Henry looked to the infant girl sitting on Regina’s hip, chewing on a lock of her mother’s now near waist length hair. Grace was a bit too young to be interested what was going on. “And this little Princess must be Grace”  
At hearing her name Grace looked at the ghost of Regina’s father and smiled, showing off her four upper teeth, with tiny dimples appearing in her cheeks. She babbled happily.

“I remember when you were that small Regina. Other than those dimples she clearly got from her father, she looks a lot like you at that age.” Grace’s eyes were Regina’s shade of brown and her fine baby hair was a dark thick patch on top of her head with thinner hair on the sides.

Regina’s father looked at Henry. “You’ve done a good job looking out for your mother and the rest of your family too. I’m glad fate finally brought the families together. “

“So you know about Emma?” Regina asked.

“I’ve seen a little, but your husband told me quite a bit.”

“Daddy, did you interrogate Robin?” Regina’s mouth quirked into a faint smile.

“Not interrogation, dear, just conversation.”

Robin laughed. “Well, it was kind of in between. Your father found me almost as soon as I arrived. He wanted to know about this man who was his daughter’s soulmate, and about our family at the time.”

“I wasn’t properly protective of you when your mother pushed for the marriage to Leopold. I apologize for that. I could have pressed for annulment when you made it clear how miserable you were in the marriage.”

“It’s okay Daddy. That was a long time ago.”

“I know it was, but I never truly apologized to you for my weakness when you needed me most.” 

Robin saw the sadness reflected on Regina and her father’s faces; he knew he needed to lighten both of their moods. 

“It was actually your father who encouraged me to reach you. I wanted to so much, and Roland too. But I knew so little about magic. Your father reminded me of soulmate magic. Then I remembered a spell from your book. One for keeping soulmates connected, no matter how far apart they were.”

“Once I got your soul heart from Gold, you could reach me in dreams.”

“Roland too.”

“I remember, papa.”

Robin looked apologetically at Henry “I wanted to try to reach you too, but I didn’t want to presume on a family bond. I knew you were happy about Regina and me being together. And Roland had bonded to you, but I didn’t want to push beyond that. I didn’t know if you wanted me to be a father figure.”

Henry nodded. “I probably should have said something, at least before we went to the Underworld. It was good to feel like I had both a mom and dad, and a little brother too. I was waiting for you to ask me. I figured it out when you came back. That’s why I made it obvious when we were on Avalon.”

Regina’s father glanced behind him. “I’m afraid that’s all the time they’ll give me. But I’m happy I was able to talk with you.”

“We are too, Daddy.” Regina said as her father faded away.

After that Regina stopped going to the vault on the anniversary of her father’s death, and the family went together on her father’s birthday. Apparently the ghostly visit must have been a one-time thing. But Regina swore she felt her father’s presence even if she couldn’t see or speak with him. There were still some tears, but there was laughter now too. And an ever growing family. 

Regina had drawn the line at including the Charmings; even though Snow vaguely remembered her father and asked. Too much a reminder of the years of that abusive forced marriage to Leopold. This was a private memorial for the Locksley-Mills family. It did now include her older children’s partners though. Violet began to come along with Henry the second year. Now Roland’s partners Eimi and Douglas had joined. 

However, Regina had asked Robin’s sister if she’d like to come the second year. Rowena politely demurred. “It’s for your immediate family. Wilfred, the children and I have one like that for his father Cedric. I invited Robin to come with you and your children, but he felt like it would be an intrusion. I feel the same about this. It’s special to you and should stay that way. “ Regina understood, and actually felt slightly relived. It was very personal and private. 

It was likely though, if Rowena and Robin ever forgave either their mother or father, and started a yearly memorial, then both families would do that one together. Perhaps they might their mother someday, but she doubted they’d forgive their father. Regina still couldn’t do even a solitary memorial for her mother. 

Regina did start doing a solitary memorial for Zelena, a few years ago. If Hope ever asked, she’d include her; she was old enough and now knew the full story about her birth mother. Right now Hope was not very positively inclined toward her birth mother. 

Regina mainly went to tell her sister about Hope’s milestones, perhaps Zelena heard her in the underworld. She couldn’t forgive Zelena for what she did to Robin. But seeing how close Hope and Grace were, made her wish things could have been better between her and Zelena. At the very end there had been a shaky bit of reconciliation. Regina hoped, once she broke the curse on the family, that Zelena’s soul could break the hold on darkness had on her. She hoped Zelena got some measure of peace in the underworld. Regina would never ask anyone else to go along with her to Zelena’s grave. Robin knew she did and accepted it, but she never spoke about it in respect to him. Henry had asked if she wanted anyone to come with her; he’d seen the late change in Zelena and understood why Regina went. If Hope ever wanted to go then she might ask Henry if he wanted to then. Regina knew it ‘d be helpful for Hope if Henry was there too. 

Since the memorial to her father was now a birthday celebration, everyone had taken to dressing up in Enchanted Forest formal clothes. Snow had insinuated herself in this celebration, through that, after the twins were born. She convinced Henry to let her find and buy the twins clothes in the Storybrooke formal wear store. Snow did have good taste in children’s clothes and she was one of the twin’s great grandparents. So Regina endured the squeals of how adorable the twins looked in their outfits, for the sake of peace in the family. Plus, privately she thought they were cute in the outfits too. But she’d never say that out loud to Snow. She’d never hear the end of it, if she had.

The formal wear shop was the only place in Storybrooke- outside of her old clothes in the vault, where you could find clothing in styles from their former land. At first, even after the curse broke, the majority of Storybrooke adults were quite happy to put aside anything associated with their lives in the Enchanted Forest. But the children Henry’s age had only childhood memories of that land. They also had been exposed to this world’s fascination with royalty- mostly just the costumes, though. The young girls began to ask for dresses like what princesses wore in the Enchanted Forest. The woman who ran the shop had been the head seamstress at one of the royal courts, so she remembered how to make the dresses. She developed a signature style that blended the formal wear of this world and the Enchanted Forest’s. It was a simplified style that used a lot of satin, and didn’t require the corseting common in women’s royal dress of the Enchanted Forest. 

A favorite style was actually based off the style of dress Regina had worn when she had first seen Robin. It was even called page 23. Snow been the one who probably started this fad. She had started telling the “lost lovers” tale, as she called it, to her eighth grade students, every year. She’d begun doing this after she’d heard what happened long ago, during Regina’s quest. 

“You lost Daniel, and you lost Robin the first time, in part, because of me. I want the children of Storybrooke to know what you’ve sacrificed, Regina.”

“It wasn’t you that orchestrated anything, Isaac, the Blue Fairy, Rumple and my mother are the ones to blame.”  
“But I still want people to understand what happened to you. And” Snow smiled lopsidedly “they love angsty love stories at that age.”

Regina rolled her eyes but let Snow continue telling the story to her students. She started getting sympathetic comments and questions from the children who took the magic class after that. It wasn’t long after that the formal clothing shop started making their version of the dress. 

Regina, of course, bought the girls dresses in that style when they begged her, and even had one in red satin herself. Robin was quite taken with that dress. She’d worn it for the first time to Henry and Violet’s wedding. Regina also bought the girls’ first dresses in that style then. Hope’s in peridot and Grace’s in amethyst. 

Henry and Violet’s senior prom had been the first year Enchanted Forest style clothing was worn by both the boys and the girls. Some of the children still elected to wear this world’s type formal wear, but Henry and Violet had both chosen Enchanted Forest style. Regina was embarrassed to remember she had gone full on weepy mom when she’d seen Henry dressed up that way. She’d managed to contain it- barely, when she and Robin took the pre prom pictures of Henry and Violet in the foyer, but when Robin left with them to drive them to the dance, she had to run into her home office to get herself back under control. She had been weepy mom at Henry’s graduation and his and Violet’s wedding too. The later that Henry and Violet also dressed in Enchanted Forest style. Regina had been mortified that she couldn’t hold back the tears at the wedding, it wasn’t until Robin pulled her into a side embrace that she’d been able to take some deep breaths and stop crying. Of course Snow had some happy tears too, but Emma sat there as calm as you please. 

Regina had long ago fireballed most of her old clothes that had come over with the curse in the vault, too many bad memories. She could always magically recreate them but they just didn’t fit the woman she was now. Robin had convinced her to save a couple he remembered her wearing during the missing year, and she had also chosen to save the one she’d worn the night of their forgotten meeting in the tavern, when she’d almost escaped from the hell path. The famous page 23 dress. 

On a whim, she’d worn that one the first year of the birthday memorial for her father. Robin was quite taken with how young and innocent it made her look, especially with her hair hanging loose down to her waist. She’d let Violet borrow it for her wedding to Henry a few years ago. 

They had mutually decided; after Grace was born, that she would get to choose Robin’s and the girl’s clothes while Robin choose hers and Roland’s. Henry was old enough they let him choose his own. But after Henry married he and Violet followed the same pattern she and Robin did. 

“It’s kind of fun! I see why you and Robin do it.” Violet had said.

Regina laughed “It is. Kind of like playing dress up as child.”

“But for adults.” Violet’s knowing smile reminded Regina this young woman was married to her oldest son, and she lightly blushed with embarrassment. Apparently Violet and Henry knew about Robin and her dress up sexy role playing in the vault. She and Robin kept it there to avoid the children accidently seeing this private playful side of their relationship. Apparently Henry had found out somewhere along the way and must have told Violet. She preferred not to think about her oldest son and his wife doing the same thing... 

When the family assembled in the lower part of the vault Regina felt the temperature drop sharply. Her father’s ghost appeared shortly after. There was a slight smile on his face but she saw the worry in his eyes.

“My, look at how the family’s grown.”

“I’m a grandmother now, daddy.” Regina smiled.

“So I see. A little prince and princess”

“This is Zita and this is Dillion”

“Zita looks a lot like my mother. Dillion takes after your grandfather, hmm Henry?”

“Yeah his hair’s dark but he’s going to be tall like Grandpa David, we think.”

Prince Henry looked over at Roland and his partners; Roland was smiling while Eimi and Douglas were staring in awe. 

“So the littlest Merry Man isn’t so little anymore, all grown up.”

“Yeah grandpa. This is Eimi and this is Douglas.”

“Rare to have two true loves, but I had an ancestor who did. They were probably the happiest of all my ancestors.”

“Cool. I told you my grandpa was awesome, didn’t I?”

“Yeah you did. I see why now.” Eimi smiled. 

Prince Henry looked at Hope and Grace then. “Your two little princesses are growing up, Regina, almost young ladies now.”

“I remember when I saw you grandpa, Grace was just a baby.”

“And you a toddler, surprised you remember, Hope.”

“I’d never forget that!”

“And tiny little Grace, not so little now. You’ll remember your Grandpa this time, hmm?”

“Uh huh.” Grace reached out to him.

Prince Henry sighed. “I’m afraid we can’t touch, but we can talk.” Then he looked at Robin “You’ve been the best possible husband to my daughter, and not just because you are soulmates.

“Thank you, I swear I will continue to be.”

“Good. I’m afraid my visit isn’t all happy though. We’ve seen what the Dark One is doing and how dangerous he is making himself.”

“Yeah, we’ve been keeping an eye on him.”

“They’ve allowed me to see you again to pass along a warning. Usually they don’t let us interfere, but this time they’re allowing me to pass along what we’ve seen. He’s planning on drawing power from as many ley lines as he can. He wants to control not only the magic of this world outside of your Storybrooke, but he also intends on wresting control of his mother’s realm and trying to impose its magic on this world. That would cause devastation to this world, especially its ley lines. This world’s ley lines carefully balance the magic in this world. It could even damage Storybrooke’s ley line; although it can absorb much more magic than the older lines.” 

“We suspected he was pulling power from the ley lines for something. This is even worse than we guessed.’

“You know his daughter is in danger. She’s a power source now.”

“I don’t think he’d consciously hurt Bae, but the dark power that rules him could get too tempted. We’re taking steps to protect her from her father.”

“Good. Regina, I can tell you one more thing, it’s something I don’t think you’ve realized.”

“What’s that, daddy?”

“Your curse created Storybrooke and its ley line. When you took the light path you became its guardian.”

“I’m a Guardian?”

“You are.”

“But I’ve had no training.”

“You trained yourself, when you learned how to use your light magic. Even when you didn’t even know you were using light magic, you unconsciously protected the line, by what you set into place. Your mother had to explain some of this to me. But I’ve learned about light magic so I could help you, if it was allowed.”

“Mother’s there, you’ve talked to her?”

“I have. We’ve made our peace, and I know you have, as much as you could. She knows you aren’t ready to see her yet.”  
Regina nodded as her father faded away.

Robin drew her into a side embrace “So not only a light savior but a guardian too.” He smiled. “You’ve been this town’s guardian to me, ever since I met you in Storybrooke. I could see the light in you.” 

Robin thought the savior thing was nonsense. Even shared between two people, they alone couldn’t be the end all be all. Everyone, magic user or not, was part of saving things. But this Guardian thing, that made a lot more sense. Mulan explained it to him and Regina after she had spoken to the Dragon. It was one part of the magic of all realms- even this one misnamed the “Land Without Magic”. Instead it was a land of hidden magic. Ley line Guardians helped keep the power in the lines from being misused or drained away. All the Guardians worked together. Some, like Regina had, unconsciously; the older Guardians did so consciously. Robin had a feeling he and Regina might be making a trip to New York soon to talk to the Dragon. The girls were old enough now they could stay home for a couple of days with Roland here too. Henry, Rowena, and likely the other members of their very extended family looking in on them as well.

“You and Henry were the only ones then, and you were the only one who saw it right away. Even in the Enchanted Forest, you saw it, I sure didn’t then.” Regina replied

“And look how far you’ve come since then.”

Regina smiled back at Robin, but then her expression turned serious. “So it’s worse than we suspected. We better call a meeting.”


	6. Chapter 6

Resolution Chapter 6

Regina could feel the tension in the room as she stepped up to the podium. She hadn’t felt that much tension at one since the first townhall after the missing year. But unlike that one, she could tell there was no hostile fear directed at her; she knew the anger and anxiety was about what was going on outside of Storybrooke. Still, it was a relief that Robin, David, Snow and Emma were standing right behind her; Robin in particular, she could feel his hand on the small of her back calming her own anxiety.

“Are we really safe here? Gold knows where this town is. What if he brings others with him like he did the other time he left?”

“We can handle that.” Regina was confident Emma was as capable as she was now; they also had Maleficent as a powerful ally, and the stronger fairies like Tinkerbelle. There were even a few young adults among her former students that were high and moderate level magic users. “We have a lot more trained light magic users than back then. Gold will be the biggest threat, but his daughter lives here. That will make outright attack less likely.” But they couldn’t entirely count it out, Regina thought, which was why she had initiated the element combining special classes. It would make high level magic users to somewhat make up for less years of training if they faced an older dark magic user. It would protect moderate level magic users from being hurt as badly. It was a good discipline to strengthen their abilities but it was also a defensive magic. But for the general populace it was better to give an optimistic message for now. “Up till now he’s been content to let her live in safety here.” 

“What about what’s going out there? Will we be safe from that? The president is trying to take away people’s rights.”

Regina looked over to Emma, this was more her type question to answer. Emma nodded and Regina stepped back to let Emma answer “But he hasn’t succeeded, people are protesting, judges and lawyers are blocking the executive orders, congress is fighting too.” 

“Could they find out about us? Most of us adults came over with the curse. Our papers were created with the curse, could they find that out?”

“Regina, think you’re the expert on that” Emma said

“As far as the paperwork goes, it’s exactly the same, so we are safe on that point.”

“What about them finding our town?”

“The town line spell protects us from being found by anyone who isn’t from here.”

“But Mr. Gold knows where we are, he could tell people, lead them here.”

David tapped Regina on the shoulder; he’d discussed this possibility with Snow. Regina stepped back and let David speak. “We’ve discussed a plan for that possibility. It’s not just the magic users that can defend Storybrooke, we all can.”

Regina had a feeling this “we” he’d discussed it with was Snow. She certainly hadn’t been party to that discussion, and if Robin had, he would have told her about it. Regina was able to quickly disguise her surprise at this news. She glanced back at Robin, after a brief look of confusion, so was he. 

Emma, though, was not able to hide her look of shocked dismay. Regina could tell Emma was ready to object to this plan in front of the townhall. Snow leaned over and whispered in Emma’s ear. Emma shook her head no and started to speak.

“Discuss it later with your parents, not in front of the townhall.” Regina said in an annoyed whisper “Look at the crowd, your father has them calmer than they’ve been since we walked in. He’s telling them they aren’t helpless-“

“But how many of them have actually fought, plus everyone that did back in the Enchanted Forest isn’t exactly young and what did they fight with? What if Gold comes in with the military?” Emma whispered back.

“He’d have to get the president and congress’ permission for that, right? He has some kind of sway over the president but it’s not absolute; he doesn’t seem to have control over congress. The ones that are loyal to the president are just loyal because he’s the same party as them, and they are corrupt enough. The president hasn’t had much luck getting much of what he wants.”

Emma looked impressed. “Didn’t realize you’d learned that much and paid that much attention to what’s been going on outside of here.”

“Necessity. Ever since Gold left I’ve had moments where I worried about that too. Thankfully this country’s laws may just protect us. So far Gold is letting the sides fight each other. But if he brings in the powerful dark magic from his mother’s realm and tries to remake this world into his kingdom-“

“You think that’s what he’s planning?”

Regina grimaced. “It’s a possibility. The Guardians think that’s his plan; why he’s gathering access to so many ley lines, and took the most powerful things from his shop. “

“How could we fight him if he did that?”

“We couldn’t. Certainly not alone. I don’t know if we could even defeat him with the Guardians’ help.”

“So we have to stop him before he does that.”

“Our chance will be when he comes for Bae. I’m sure he knows if he does choose to bring dark magic from another realm that way it could cause not just massive magic disruption but very likely incredible physical damage to this land. It could even strike Storybrooke. He’ll come for her right before he completes his plan.”

“We’ve got to stop him then though, no matter the cost.”

“Short of killing or making him comatose. We can’t let that dark magic victimize anyone else ever again. The cost is too high.” Emma nodded grimly.   
*****************************************************************************************************************

Regina sighed and laid her head on Robin’s chest. “I think that was the toughest townhall we’ve had since that first one after the missing year.”

Robin pulled her closer on their bed, and smiled. He was proud of her calm leadership at this townhall, and was remembering that entertaining first townhall. “You put on quite a performance then.”

“You were there? I didn’t see you or Roland.”

“Yep, in the far back corner. None of the Merry Men were interested in going, but I wanted to know what was going on. Tuck watched Roland for me.”

“Did you know I was faking? Emma and I came up with the idea.”

“Then, I wasn’t sure. But I felt something didn’t ring quite true, even though I thought we’d never met before.”

“The soulmate bond or the suppressed memories?”

“A bit of both I think. I think we both felt a bit of that when we met up at the farmhouse.”

Regina smiled, remembering that day. “Yeah. I even asked you if we’d met before.” She chuckled. “You also kept staring at my ass.”

“Ah, you noticed that then?”

“Of course. After you saved Snow and me back in the Enchanted Forest, I kept looking back at you. You noticed that, right?”

“I did. It made me feel unsettled, but not in a scared or angry way. I realized I felt some kind of unexplained attraction to you. I know we’ve both talked about how we felt that soulmate connection the moment I reached out to you. But I kept feeling that then inexplicable attraction.”

“Me too.”

“It only got stronger when you saved Roland and then tried to make him not feel afraid anymore. I had to follow you, not only my honor code demanded it, but those strange feelings. And no, don’t bring up what happened when you saw my lion tattoo. You’ve apologized for years about that. It’s long since forgiven. Let’s just bask in the happy, disconcerting memories.”

“Okay.” Regina murmured. After a few moments though, she said, “Was it a mistake calling a town hall when we knew so little new confirmed information?”

“No. If we’d waited till we knew more, they would have been angry we’d withheld information from them.” 

 

“No win situation either way.”

“Better to get it over sooner than later.”

*************************************************************************************************

They made it through Thanksgiving, and Christmas was soon approaching, with only vague hints in investigative blogs of Rumpelstiltskin's movements.

It was Regina’s day to pick up Roland and the girls from school. She shook her head as she could tell Roland was teasing Hope on the way to the car. Hope was getting annoyed but it hadn’t turned to squabbling yet. Grace was running and sliding on the ice patches on the sidewalk. She’d already lost her balance once and landed bottom first in the snow piles next to the sidewalk. Regina was glad the revisions to the school dress codes made a standard uniform for both boys and girls of: navy blue dress pants, white dressshirt, and navy blue blazer. Regina came to heartily dislike the short plaid skirt the girls used to have to wear, when she heard Violet’s complaints about it. Her now daughter-in-law made valid points on how awful it was to wear in the winter time, and how she had to be really careful how she sat in it any time.

Once the blue fairy was no longer running the schools, Regina proposed a referendum changing some school policies. The dress code had been one of those. Another was to be more in line with Maine’s public traditional schools, rather than the parochial ones. It made more sense anyway. It was already a free public school in cost, and mostly in curriculum. 

The thing that was the most controversial was the change to a three levels system, rather than the two levels they’d had. Snow had proposed that change. She’d read some studies supporting the public school three level system. The studies said it was better to give young adolescent students their own space; rather than either lumping them in with either elementary school children as parochial schools did, or with high school students like public schools did before the 1980’s. Regina had listened to Snow’s argument and read the studies. She’d decided the idea was sound and put it as one of the referendums. The dress code change votes were overwhelmingly in favor. The change to officially being a traditional public school passed with an easy majority. But the level system change only barely passed. Then came the debate of what grades to separate into the middle school. They were still fine tuning that. The latest proposal would make fifth-eighth grades middle school. She and Robin both were in favor of this, as were Snow and David. There was going to be a special referendum vote on this in March.

“Yeah, you like Susie!” Roland teased as he jumped into the front passenger seat.

“Stop it Roland!” Hope shouted and blushed as she climbed into the middle seat of the SUV.

“I think Susie’s nice; you’re being mean Roland.” Grace scolded as she sat down beside Hope.

“Yeah Hope thinks Susie’s re-al nice” Roland emphasized with a grin.

“Oh.” Grace realized what the teasing had been about. “So you like Susie?” Grace looked at her sister interestingly.

“Stop!” Hope shouted, blushing furiously.

“That’s enough teasing your sister, Roland.” Regina said firmly.

“Okay.” He grinned.

Regina sighed, those two. Archie told her this was very normal sibling behavior. Well, at least it wasn’t squabbling anymore. So Hope has her first crush. She vaguely knew who Susie was. Thankfully, her parents had been young traveling musicians in George’s kingdom, so they had no bad memories of her from the Enchanted Forest. That would help make things smoother for Hope. 

She hoped Zelena hadn’t directly terrorized them either, since apparently it was common knowledge who Hope’s birth mother was. There’d been a few issues before that awful incident with Phillip Junior. Those had been much more subtle, not from her classmates, but from their parents. 

Regina didn’t think Hope had noticed the wary looks from some parents on the PTA nights, but she and Robin had. As had Roland when Hope started kindergarten and he was in sixth grade. Roland had stuck his tongue out at the staring parents. Regina had to hold back a laugh, and the parents had looked away, embarrassed at being caught and mocked. 

Roland tormented Hope because she was his sister, but he hated when anyone judged her or other kids bullied her. Once he found out what Phillip Junior had done, Regina and Robin both had to firmly tell Roland to not go beat up the boy.

“It’s better to let Hope handle this. It’s a painful situation.” Robin said sympathetically.

“Grace wants to fight him too.” Roland said sullenly.

“We know, so does Hope. Let Grace and Hope figure out how they want to deal with that.” Regina sighed. “If you beat up Phillip Junior you look like the bully. It also makes the reason why you want to beat him up, stick in her classmates’ minds. If you let Hope handle this it will fade away faster. Her classmates know he’s a bully, and he isn’t well liked. Hope’s a bit shyer than you or Grace, but she has her friends in her class.”

“Alright.” Roland had agreed, reluctantly. 

A couple of weeks ago though, she heard Hope and Roland laughing while they were doing their homework. She went to investigate what they were laughing about and stood just outside the living room. Roland, Douglas and Eimi had come up with a prank on Phillip Junior that embarrassed him in front of his classmates. It was a clever enough prank that it looked like an accident. It made him look like he’d tripped over something and lost his pants. Regina had to clap a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing in the hallway. She and Robin laughed about it that night when they were alone.

“Have to say that was a brilliant way my boy came up with to-“

“Your boy, hmm, funny how when he pulls off a good prank on a bully he’s ‘your boy’, but when he’s gotten into trouble he’s ‘our son’.” Regina teased.

Robin chuckled. “Ah, caught me out. Guilty as charged. So what are you going to do about it, milady?”

“I’ll think of something suitable, thief.” She flirted back.

*****************************************************************************************

That week, the other college students who had chosen universities outside of Storybrooke, began arriving home for the holidays. One was Matthew’s ex-boyfriend Davu. Davu was bisexual, while Matthew was gay. Davu fell out of love with Matthew and became attracted to a girl named Tomoe. Tomoe wasn’t interested in Davu, but when Davu started talking about how pretty Tomoe was far too often, Matthew broke up with him. Davu choose to go to college in Bangor, to get his degree in civil engineering. 

Davu arrived back in Storybrooke with his girlfriend, Lita. They walked into the mayor’s office as soon as they arrived. Regina was working on public notice for the next quarter’s budget, but laid it down when Davu asked to speak with her on a crucial issue.

“Mayor Mills, I know you probably don’t like me too much right now because of what happened with your nephew and me.”

Regina looked up at the tall young man with medium brown skin and a stylishly cut afro. Davu was descended from the giant Biriir ina Barqo. While Davu wasn’t a giant, he was well over six feet tall. Regina had to crane her neck back from her seated position to look him in the eyes. “I can be professional. What’s the issue?”

“Lita, she’d like sanctuary here. She’s been writing about stuff she’s found out about the president. She’s had death threats and we’re afraid to go back to the university.”

The young woman had strong features, with light tan skin, and long, straight, black hair. Regina wondered if she was a friend or girlfriend or Davu. The negative feelings she had about Davu for breaking her nephew’s heart was immaterial now, though. “What’s happened out there? The news has turned useless. We’ve heard a few things from other sources-“

“Blogs, yeah. People are getting afraid. The president is trying to pass a law so you can be sued for a lot of money. if the president decides you’ve insulted him too much. Congress is fighting it but we don’t know if there’s enough to keep it from passing. There’s been big protests, some lawsuits, and talk of an independent investigation into the election. But now there are stories about people disappearing.” Lita spoke calmly, but fear was in her eyes.

Regina nodded solemnly; of course she’d let Lita stay here, there was no real question, except, “Has Davu told you about this town?”

The young woman’s mouth quirked into a disbelieving smirk. “Something about magic being real? I saw you have some kind of fancy cloaking device at the town line. Someone really knows their tech. There’s a rumor about the military having some kind of breakthrough on that for one of their planes, but you still know they’re coming by the engine noise. My lab was able to create a small temporary field, but we haven’t been able to make a permanent one like your town’s.”

“It’s not science. Although we certainly appreciate technology here, it’s magic.” Regina replied.

Lita raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

Now it was Regina’s turn to smirk. She didn’t usually show off... oh maybe a bit for the magic class, but it’d been a long time since she’d encountered a magic skeptic. She produced a small fireball then let it disappear.

“Are you the town’s tech? That was an amazingly real hologram.”

“Not a hologram, that flame was real. Watch.” This time Regina looked around the room, what could she fireball? Ah, that obnoxious complaint from Albert sitting on her desk, might leave a scorch mark, but oh well... easily fixed with more magic.

Lita rushed to the table right after the paper disappeared into the fireball. “Ouch! That’s hot!” Lita looked stunned at the scorched spot she’d touched with surprise.

Regina took the young woman’s wrist and quickly healed the burn on her finger.

Lita’s eyes grew wide.

“Like I said Lita, magic is real here. “ Davu chided gently.

“I understand her skepticism. “ Regina smiled. “We call the world outside of this town ‘The Land Without Magic’. It’s not entirely though, you just have to look for it.”

“My maternal great grandmother said magic was real. She said she could heal people. Her people were the Penobscot; they have tribal lands not far from here. “

“You might have magic. Davu has mid-level air magic.”

Lita turned her head to look at Davu. “You claimed you could change the direction of wind right around you...”

“I can here. Only was able to do it once in Bangor. Remember the windstorm?”

“Yeah.”

“I got so irritated at being pushed backward when I was trying to get back to the dorm, I was able to move the wind just enough away from me I got there without a problem. But it made me so tired I slept the rest of the day.”

“I remember. You didn’t come to the windstorm party we had.”

“Mayor, you think Lita might have magic?”

“It’s always possible. But her skills as a scientist are every bit as valuable.”

“I’m just a student; I don’t even have my Bachelor’s in Engineering of Matter and Energy yet.”

“I’m sure that’s true, but you are working on current science. I’m afraid scientists are thin on the ground here. We have doctors and pharmacists, but scientists like you, even as students…besides Doctor Whale, we only have people your age, like Davu.”

“Wow. So outside of medicine-“

“And computer science, my oldest son has a second bachelors in computer science, as do a few other younger adults.”

“But you have no science techs?”

“Not real ones. Doctor Whale, well, lets just say it’s a hobby…”

“Oh. Davu? Is he’s the mad scientist you told me about?”

“Yep!”

“Hmm, so you really are that short of scientists?”

“Afraid so.”

“So can I continue my political blogging?”

“Of course.” Regina did wince inwardly, thinking about this young woman’s possible future blog posts. Once she finds out who they were and what they’d done in the past, herself in particular...

Lita looked sheepish. “I’m afraid I don’t have much money-“

“I’ve got an apartment, Lita. I told you we could both live there. I’ve got money too, in the bank.”

“I know, but I don’t want to be completely dependent on you until I can get some kind of job.”

“Actually I can help you there. You said you’re a blogger. Blogging on politics?”

“Yeah.”

“The Daily Mirror really needs more people to work on the online edition of the paper. And you have very up to date news...”

“I haven’t blogged in a week...”

“Probably more current than most the staff at the paper.”

“Ugh, that bad?”

“Oh yeah.” Davu rolls his eyes. “They still focus more on the print edition and just report on local news.”

“You must be joking.”

“He’s not. They only have one staff member that works on the online edition.”

“Wow. So how do I interview for a job there?”

“I’ll call and see when you can go in.” 

“You’d do that for me? You just met me.”

“Uh huh. You said you wanted to live here and you needed a job. As mayor I’m responsible for my citizens.” Regina pulled out her phone and walked back to her desk, pulling out a blank note paper.

“Wow.” she whispered to Davu. “I’ve never met a politician like her. She really believes in the ideal.”

“Yeah. That’s why she keeps getting re-elected. She’s been mayor since I was a little kid.” Davu hadn’t mentioned about the curse, or that they had come from another place where people here wrote about them as stories. Lita would have never believed that. She’d disbelieved the magic stuff.... and that at least didn’t sound that crazy, just naive. She’ll find out eventually, hopefully not for a while though. Lita was great; he hoped she’d stay after she found out everything.

“They’ll take you on a paid internship; if it works out in three months you’ll be hired as full time staff.” Regina walked back over to them. “Just come in tomorrow at 8 AM. Now, as a mother myself I have to ask you, have you called your parents?”

“I was going to call my mom once I knew I could stay here.”

“Go ahead and call. If she has questions I can talk to her.”

Lita looked surprised again. “You’d do that for me?”

“Of course. From what you’ve told me I bet your mom is worried about you.”

Lita nodded. “She is. She feels the same way I do, but she’s not talking about it to anyone but me. She’s really scared. Grandma is worried too. Grandma talks about history and how badly our people were treated. She understands but she says it’s risky, especially for us.”

“Call her.” Regina said gently.

Lita hit the button on her phone. Her mother immediately answered.

“Lita where are you? I left messages but you didn’t answer. I called your friends and they said you’d left with Davu; that’s all they knew.”

“Sorry mom! I’m okay and yeah I’m with Davu. You were right. I’m scared now. No one’s disappeared at our college, but the progressive news site said a student blogger was arrested last week in Portland and hasn’t been seen since.”

“Don’t go back to college Lita, come home.”

“I’m safe with Davu. He lives in a town called Storybrooke; it’s only about seventy miles from our land. It’s not on maps, just like ours aren’t.”

“Are you sure you’re safe?”

“Yes.”

“Can I speak to Davu?”

“Yeah.”

Regina smiled, Lita had the volume up high enough she could hear what her mother was saying. She watched Davu assure Lita’s mother he would protect her with his life, that he loved Lita, and the town was very safe... 

Sometimes, Regina thought. Davu’s age group had grown up much more safe and secure than Henry’s had, her girls even moreso. That was both good and bad. At least Roland, Matthew, Davu had some memory of when Storybrooke came under magical attack, so they were more prepared, but on the other hand it likely brought up very frightening childhood memories. For her girls it was just tales they’d heard. She hoped the combining magics training the children had would help, if the time came. She hoped the children didn’t have to even use their training… 

They had started basic arms and defense classes for the adults and children without magic as well. Robin and Snow taught an archery class, while David, with the occasional assistance from Killian taught sword fighting. Emma did a firearms training. Emma was one of the few magic users that was quite comfortable with guns. Regina could barely stand to even touch a gun; it just felt repulsive in her hands.

“You sure you’re not part elf, Regina?” Emma teased.

“Elf? Why?”

“Oh, some story I read one time, elves were supposed to hate everything about guns, even touching them.” 

“Elves are very rare in the Enchanted Forest. I never met one. The only thing I ever heard was their realm wasn’t quite part of the Enchanted Forest and if you went there you could never come back.”

“Yeah we don’t have any in Storybrooke, so I guess none of the curses ever touched their realm.”

“Apparently not. I don’t think they would have been pleased to have been brought here.”

“Anyway, you and Rebecka are only people I ever seen actually shudder when you touched a gun. She’s a healer so it kind of makes sense with her; she isn’t thrilled touching any weapon. But you’re-“

“Fire element. The natural warriors.” Regina shrugged “I just hate them, they feel repulsive.”

“Part elf.” Emma laughed.

*******************************************************************************************

Henry decided that maybe he might find something useful in the other storybooks he had spent many hours the past few weeks pouring over them. Unfortunately, it looked to be a wasted effort. The one thing he had discovered was a couple of alternate Storybrooke tales that he wished he hadn’t. They were depressing and hopeless, and seemed to be variants of the other and theirs, splitting off at different points. He shoved them behind a shelf of other storybooks. He never wanted to see them again. Storybrooke didn’t show up in any of the other storybooks he’d discovered so far. Even their own rarely had him record anything from Storybrooke in it. Because of that he’d made a journal of sorts; the major things that happened here for the twins. So they’d know the family history in Storybrooke. 

After seeing those awful alternate Storybrookes he’d had to pull out the book with the alternate Avalon story. He envied that Henry’s happy, peaceful life as the oldest of that Robin and Regina’s children. He felt great sorrow for those people of those alternate Storybrookes. The one thing he’d found in those alternate Storybrooke tales were some deadly magical weapons. Likely mom already knew about them and had dismissed them. They weren’t hoping to try to kill his grandfather, just to stop him from abducting Bae and harming anyone here. They were also trying to figure out some way to stop his plan, if they could. They had allies in that though, the Guardians. He knew mom and Mulan were talking to the Dragon and a few other senior Guardians, coordinating defenses and sharing what they knew.

It was making for a tense holiday season in Storybrooke though. Even the little ones were showing stress; although they didn’t fully understand why. Dillion and Zita were having frequent nightmares about a “bad man” as was Xian, Rebecka and Mulan’s daughter. Dillion and Zita were two and half now. Henry knew they understood much more than they could say. He and Violet talked to them in simple sentences about what was real and what wasn’t. Xian was just fifteen months old, so it was difficult to tell what she understood. He knew Rebecka talked to her anyway; knowing Xian would get more than her limited words would show.


	7. Chapter 7

Resolution Chapter 7  
By the Winter Solstice the five people going to college outside of Storybrooke had returned, and the town had seven new residents. The new residents were friends of the returning college students. Like Lita they were student activists seeking sanctuary. Four of the seven came back with Nick Zimmer. The law student had driven them all the way from Madison, Wisconsin. One was his girlfriend Sarah and the other three were their friends Carl, Jana and Gian. Lita Williams’ first Daily Mirror article was telling the stories of her fellow student refugees.

*****************************************************************************************************************

Nick Zimmer returned to Storybrooke the day after Davu. Like Davu he headed to the mayor’s office, but he came armed with stacks of legal papers, prepared to have to argue the case for sanctuary. “Madame Mayor?” Nick said politely as he led his friends in.

Regina glanced up from Henry’s sweet handwritten note about Christmas dinner. This year the extended family would gather at Henry and Violet’s house, instead of hers. He was assuring her they had everything ready, to just bring her lasagna and apple pie. Regina smiled about the note, then said to Nick “How can I help you?” The young man looked anxious and sleep deprived “Take a seat.”

“It’s not me, it’s my friends.” He looked back at the four people following him. They looked as anxious and sleep deprived as him.

Regina said gently, “Let’s sit over there near the fire. Did you drive straight through?”

“Yeah.” He scrubbed his hand across his face. “We switched off every few hours. I took the last ones, since I knew where the town was and had the pass.”

Regina nodded. “I’m guessing your friends want sanctuary?”

Nick’s eyes widened in surprise. “How did you know?”

“They’re not the first; Davu brought someone back with him yesterday.”

“So you’ll grant it?” Nick said bluntly.

Regina nodded. “On the condition they know what this town is. Have you told them?”

“Nick told us that magic was real here, and some other stuff that sounded too crazy to believe, but it’s Nick. He doesn’t make up wild stories. Then when we got here, and the town sign just appeared out of nowhere...”

“Magic is real here. The ‘crazy stuff’ was it about the stories?” Regina prompted.

“Yeah, something about a spell that brought you here. That fairy tale characters are real, just from an alternative world. But the stories we know aren’t quite what really happened, something like that. Said he was Hansel.” Gian smiled. He knew Carl and Jana were very doubtful, even Sarah said it was difficult to believe. But he believed in alternate realities. He read theories speculating that stories, especially fantasy and science-fiction, were real people’s stories in alternate universes. And that the stories of other realities were where they came in close contact. This could prove the theories might be true. 

“He was Hansel.” Regina replied. Nick had come a long way from the twelve year old boy who had attempted to shoplift snacks from a convenience store. Emma had reunited Nick and his sister Ava with their father. Their father, Michael Tilman, wasn’t like the version in this world’s fairy tale books. There was no stepmother. Their late mother, Dory Zimmer, who died a few years before the curse, was actually the only good parent. Their father had virtually abandoned them in the Enchanted Forest. When they came over with the curse, it interpreted that as a full abandonment, even listing their father as unknown on their birth certificates and giving them their mother’s surname. Michael Tilman wasn’t any better a father to them in Storybrooke.

Emma kept up with their situation and eventually Stroybrooke’s child protective services placed them with foster parents. Their father kept a haphazard contact with them. Luckily their foster parents gave them the stable home they hadn’t had before. Ava became a school teacher and Nick was almost done with law school. Their generation was the first one in Storybrooke where their degrees were real not created by the curse. If they end up lacking a semester and an officially administered exam before they started working, no one in Storybrooke could really judge them. Regina thought. If anyone did, she’d remind the complainer how they’d come by their degrees.

“Who were you?” Sarah asked.

Regina looked surprised, “You didn’t tell them?”

“No. You haven’t been her for many years. And I know the story of how you were broken into becoming that person. No harm telling them I was Hansel, other than Carl asked if I wore lederhosen.” Nick rolled his eyes.

Regina smiled briefly, but then sighed. “You’d hear it soon anyway. In the Enchanted Forest they called me ‘the Evil Queen’.”

“Like in Snow White?”

Regina grimaced “Yes.”

“Nick just said you were broken into becoming the Evil Queen. What happened?” Sarah asked.

“It’s difficult to speak of. I’ve had many years of therapy.”

“I’m sorry, didn’t mean to pry. I’m one semester from getting my doctorate in psychology.”

“Archie will be glad to have help. He’s the town therapist and was Jimny Cricket in the Enchanted Forest.”

“Is he a-“

“Cricket, no. Everyone has a human form. We only have a few people who this world would call shape shifters.”

“Still seems weird, but Nick said we’d be safe here.” Jana replied. “Any openings for high school History teachers? I have my Masters; I finished up a semester early. I’ve been a teacher for five years in the Madison schools. I’m the old lady of this crew, I’m thirty. But my school’s principal was pressuring me to stop my online activism and going to marches, even though I didn’t do anything at school. I’m afraid they’d come up with something to fire me because of my politics.”

“We do have one history teacher retiring at the end of this school year. Perhaps you could do teacher assistant work until then? Applying for jobs here is pretty old school. Go to the school office and fill out the forms. My son’s an English teacher in the school.”

“Yeah and my sister Ava is the drama teacher.” Nick added.

“You’ll go through a vetting process with three teachers and one administrator. If you’ve been teaching already you shouldn’t have any problem.” 

*********************************************************************************************************************

By the beginning of March the new residents and returning students had settled in. Lita had sparked increased circulation and page hits for the Daily Mirror with her weekly profiles of Storybrooke citizens and sharp political reporting. Regina also helped Lita get a science lab set up, in exchange for regular reports on progress on her experiments, and reviewing access to any successful prototypes. Jana had passed the vetting process and was guaranteed the history teacher position when the next school year started. Nick was now Storybrooke’s new defense lawyer. Sarah was assisting Archie. Carl, who although he was just a semester away from a degree in chemical engineering, expressed a strong desire to be a firefighter. He passed the physical exam and was now a firefighter. Davu was Regina’s new Civil Engineer, assisting her on evaluating and designing building projects. Regina was worried her nephew Matthew might resent her hiring his ex-boyfriend. Matthew and Davu, though, had reached the point where they could be friends again. Plus Matthew had had a new boyfriend, Nick’s friend Gian. Gian’s utter fascination with this town, “a theory come to life” apparently was quite endearing to Matthew. Gian was helping Belle out in the Library. 

Regina had spoken with the Dragon again this week. “I think Gold will be making his big move soon. I can feel it.” Regina grimaced 

“Yes, we’ve felt him make small draws on the ley lines. We think he is testing to make sure he has connections to many of them.”

“So we need to be on alert status.”

“Yes.”

****************************************************************************************************************

Because of the alert status and the fact Roland didn’t mind, Regina and Robin held the birthday party for both Hope and Roland on Hope’s birthday, which was two weeks before Roland’s. Regina’s gut feeling was Gold might strike before Roland’s birthday. The extended family gathered at Regina and Robin’s house to celebrate Hope’s twelfth birthday and Roland’s eighteenth.

“I don’t want to offend the sensibilities of my son-in-law or Mr. Gold’s other family here, but I disagree with ruling out not killing that menace. Surely some magical weapon exists that will free us from that madman.” Hank Morgan said when the birthday meal was done.

Regina was surprised at his restraint, but perhaps he had taken the young children’s presence into account, or maybe it was the occasion. “It’s an option but would unleash the dark energy inside him into looking for a new host, if someone killed him they would become the new host. If someone puts him into a coma then the dark energy goes on a killing spree and finds a new host.” 

Hank Morgan blanched “My apologies. I didn’t know this.”

“We found out the later the hard way. You weren’t here in Storybrooke when it happened.”

“Was that how Henry’s other mother was both the Dark One and the dark savior for a while?”

“Yes.” Regina looked pained, a reminder of all the awful things that followed, including almost losing Robin forever.

“Then stopping rather than killing him is right, after all. Is there a way to imprison him so he will never get out?” 

“There are a few possibilities we’ve planned for.”  
“  
I hope you succeed.”

“We do too.”

******************************************************************************************************************

Matthew was watching Hope flying her kite. It had been a birthday gift from Roland. “You’re using air magic on that aren’t you?”

“Just a little. How could you tell?”

“Not enough breeze for how well it’s flying.”

“Oh.”

“Plus you still have that green glow issue on your fingers.” Matthew chuckled.

“Ugh, I’ve been trying to minimize that when it’s just little stuff like this. It should only be visible to non-magical users if it’s stronger.”

“I’m sure you’ll get better. “ Matthew patted her on the back. “And don’t be too sad that Susie doesn’t like you the same way.”

“Roland told you.” Hope said with irritation.

“Maybe. But it doesn’t matter who I heard it from. You remember I was with Davu for a while-“

“Yeah, now he’s with that blogger.” She said with disgust.

“Lita’s a good person. She didn’t break us up. They didn’t even meet until he went to college.”

“Yeah, it was that snob, Tomoe.”

“Tomoe is kind of snobby.” Matthew laughed. “Didn’t see what Davu thought was so awesome about her. She wasn’t even interested in him.”

“She’s pretty and popular; her parents were dukes or something in the Enchanted Forest.” Hope shrugged.

“Yeah there’s that clique she is part of, the kids of Enchanted Forest nobles. I could have been part of that clique, but I thought they were boring.”

“Your sister says that too.”

“Big part of why I dislike them is how they treated Berta. They were scared of her because she has magic, and your mom is her aunt. Unlike most people, they’re stuck on how things were in the Enchanted Forest. Whatever your family was there is how they see you here. It’s stupid. Here my mom’s an art teacher and my biological father is a part time park ranger and my stepdad’s a warehouse clerk. I’m a college student. I don’t care that my parents and I were nobles back in the Enchanted Forest. What matters is here and now.”

Hope nodded. “I don’t want people to judge me by whom my birth mom was. And to me my dad’s the head park ranger and my mom’s the mayor, not Robin Hood and the “ Hope looked irritated “evil queen.”

“Do you think that’s why Susie-“

“No. She just doesn’t like girls that way, she likes boys that way.” Hope looked sad. “I wish I hadn’t told her I liked her that way. I want to still be friends with her, but she’s avoiding me now because I told her.”

“That sucks.”

“It does.”

“Maybe she’ll stop feeling weird about it after a while and you can be friends again.”

“I hope so. She was my best friend since we were in kindergarten.”

“Oh wow, didn’t realize you’d been friends that long.”

“Yeah.”

“It took a while for Davu and me to be friends after we broke up. I think he mostly likes girls. I’m the only guy he’s been with.”

“You’re nice like my dad. Anybody that even likes guys a little would like you.”

“Wasn’t so nice for a while after Davu and I broke up. Was kind of an ass.”

Hope shrugged. “You were upset because you and Davu broke up.”

“But I’m not proud of acting like a jerk for a while.”

“You got better, even at your worst you weren’t anywhere near as bad as Phillip Junior.”

Matthew laughed. “Is anyone?”

“Not that I’ve seen. He might be a kid of a royal couple, but even the snobs in my class don’t like him.”

“He doesn’t get it, being an ass to everyone means having no friends. His little sister Briony is nothing like him.”

Hope shrugged, “Everyone knows Phillip Junior is his dad and mom’s favorite. Briony was a ‘surprise’. Plus there’s a rumor she has magic. Probably not much, but enough she makes her mom and dad nervous. They won’t allow Rebecka to look at her to see. They’re one of the few that prefer Doctor Whale.”

“Poor kid. Some parents are still scared of magic, think it’s always bad.”

“Yeah, since that stuff about the blue fairy, some people who used to at least trust light fairy magic, don’t trust any.”  
Matthew nodded. 

*******************************************************************************************************

“Mom told me she has a feeling Mr. Gold will be coming for Bae soon.” Roland, Eimi and Douglas were walking down by the lake. He sometimes called Regina by her name, sometimes called her mom when he talked about her to others. The closer he felt to them the more often he called her mom. As Regina had accepted Eimi and Douglas as part of the family, he mostly called her mom to them, now.

“So that’s why the early birthday party with your sister on her birthday?” Douglas asked.

“Yeah. She’s trying not to show it but she’s really tense about it. “

“So your dad’s not just being ‘lovey-dovey’ with all that hand holding and cuddling your mom?” Eimi grinned.

Roland chuckled “Oh that’s real, but yeah he’s also trying to help her feel less tense. “

“Seems to be working, she’s looking happy.”

“For today. We’ve made it through the party and everyone will be going home soon. So we’ve had one more good day.” Roland replied.

“You think we can hold Mr. Gold off if he comes to the school?” Douglas looked worried.

“Shh. not so loud, someone might tell mom and dad we’re planning on protecting Bae and my sister from Mr. Gold. I know I’m not going to just sit in class knowing he’s there in the building, going to the room Grace and Bae are in. They’re little kids, no way they could stand up to him.”

“Your mom and dad don’t want any of us trying to, not even us, even though we’re not kids anymore.” Eimi frowned.

“We’re not going to provoke anything, just protect Bae and my sister.” Roland said defensively. “I bet Hope and Neal are going to try that too, and they’re barely older than Grace and Bae. Their classrooms closer than ours, so they’ll get there before us, unless we can sneak out faster. At least we’re not kids; we’ve got more training than they do.”

“Yeah, we know Roland. I’m no fighter, Eimi’s the best of us three, but we’re in this together.” Douglas said firmly.


	8. Chapter 8

Resolution Chapter 8

"Regina, Gold's getting ready to cross the town line." Tinkerbelle said over the phone. "He's not alone."

"Who's with him?"

"Think it must be a private paramilitary group. There's a black armored vehicle, big enough to hold several people."

"Damn."

"Yeah."

"Maleficent's going to try to distract the other people. I'll get the word out to everyone, get to the school."

"Okay" Regina hung up. There was no time to waste; Gold probably was already at the school.  
*************************************************************************************************************

Roland dropped his phone back in his pocket. One positive point Mr. Gold arrived when Eimi, Douglas and he were in Drama class together.

"Ms. Zucker?"

"Yes, Roland?"

"Mr. Gold is here. We" He pointed to Douglas and Eimi "have to go make sure my little sister is okay."

Ava hesitated, Mr. Gold was a dangerous man, but then she nodded, she knew they would leave, permission or not. "Be careful."

The three were out the door before Ava even finished speaking. As they ran they finished the link combining their magics.

"Almost there!" Roland cried out.

"Middle of the hallway, right?" Douglas asked

"Yeah!"

As they arrived they saw Mr. Gold coming from the opposite direction.

"Just made it." Eimi said, catching her breath.

Mr. Gold stopped a few feet from them "I'm impressed. So Regina's taught you advanced light magic. A shame none of you are strong magic users" He waved his hand and the three flew backwards into the lockers. Thinking quickly, Eimi, who had been slightly in front of Roland and Douglas, curled forward so her head didn't hit the lockers. But she still gasped as the wind was knocked out of her with the impact.

Mr. Gold opened the classroom door then locked it behind him, just as Henry came running around the corner.

"No!" Henry shouted as he took in the scene. The locks were individual so his classroom key wouldn't unlock it. He turned toward Roland and his partners, groaning on the ground next to the lockers. "Mom told you not to take him on." He gently scolded.

"He didn't give us a choice whether to or not, he just threw us." Eimi explained, slowly getting her breath back.

"Yeah, not surprised. "

Hope, Neil and Roberta ran up then.

"We're too late!" Hope cried when she saw Roland and his partners wincing and groaning as they sat up.

"Yeah he's in there and locked the door. " Henry said in frustration. His phone rang then

"Hi Mom."

"Henry, did you get a call? Gold is on his way to the school."

"I did, he's already here, in the classroom. He locked the door and I can't get in."

"Hope Regina's on her way. I can't get there now. Gold brought in Blackwater types. Mal put them under a mild version of the sleeping curse, like the one she did to the town that time, and Lita's experimental mirage field worked. Both are limited time wise; so we're trying to decide what to do with them to get them out of town and not remember us."

"Mom's forgetting potion should work for not remembering us."

"There's ten of them, does she have that much? And can it be given to them under this sleeping curse?"

Henry sighed with relief when he saw purple smoke appear in the classroom door's window. "Mom's in there now. I'll ask her when I can."  
***********************************************************************************************

Regina appeared in the room and saw her daughter was holding Bae's hand tightly. Grace stood in between Bae and Gold. Both girls looked visibly frightened. There was a faint amethyst glow around Grace's hand.

"You should be proud Regina; your daughter has so much potential power, and already using some. She's far more powerful than you, dearie. But she is a soulmates' child, after all. Perhaps there's a prophesy?"

"No more prophesies." Regina could see the madness in his eyes; the power craving was in full force. He was looking at Grace like she was a prize. No, he would not harm another generation of Mills. "She's barely eleven years old. "

"Yes, a bit too young yet, perhaps in another seven or eight years…"

"No. She's my child, you won't come near her."

"Perhaps I'll leave her alone if you step away from my child."

Regina knew his words were directed at her, but she knew this was the moment she could get Grace and the rest of her class out of the room. She could protect Bae from her father better without other potential hostages around. "Grace, power down, let go of Bae's hand and come over beside me."

"But mama Bae's scared"

"I know, but do what I'm telling you."

Grace bit her lip and tearfully looked at her best friend.

"You should do what your mama says" Bae said softly.

"Okay."

As soon as Grace reached her Regina slammed the door open and shouted "Everyone else, out, now!" in her most commanding voice. She threw up a barrier between the other students and Gold.

The teacher and the other students immediately fled.

Gold smirked "Wise move"

"Grandpa." Henry stood in the doorway "You don't have to do this. Bae's afraid. Let her stay here."

Gold smiled genuinely. "No magic that's useful, but still brave and a believer. Still believe you can save me with your words. Bae's only afraid because all she's heard was how bad I am. I'd never hurt her." His expression turned firm. "I'm her father though. You have no say in this. You may be my only grandchild, but stay out of this."

"Henry, listen to him, you did what you could. I want you to get out of here with Grace…" She then saw her other children, Roland's partners, her niece and Neal Nolan standing in the hall behind Henry "and everyone else."

Henry wanted to balk, but now that he was a father himself, he understood. He nodded

Grace, though, did not; she shook her head no as Regina lightly pushed her toward the door. "No mama."

"Grace Marion Locksley-Mils" Regina said sternly "Leave now with your brother."

"Mama!" Grace began to cry and shook her head no.

Henry looked back and motioned for the others to stay back, a grim faced Roland was holding a struggling Hope from running into the room.

"Let go Roland! Mama!" Hope cried out.

Henry walked into the room, his grandfather stood passively watching, a faint smile on his face. Henry picked his youngest sister up. Then carried her, struggling in his arms and crying, out of the room.

"So you think you can keep me from taking my daughter out of here. Regina?" Gold laughed.

"I'll try. You aren't fit to be her father, right now." Regina said with a touch of sympathy. She knew he did love his daughter, but the madness she saw, no way was he coming near this child. Plus she could feel Bae literally shaking with fear, as she now clutched the back of Regina's jacket.

"She's my child, not yours, dearie." Gold said with a cold rage.

Regina realized the sympathetic note had been a mistake. He reacted as if she had patronized him. She'd upped his anger not lessened it. She'd been redeemed so long she could no longer emotionally connect with those still in the dark, especially so far in it.

"Bae, come to your papa."

Bae shook her head no and clutched Regina's jacket tighter.

Everything next happened in a blur of motion. Gold grabbed Bae's arm. Bae threw her other arm around Regina's waist. Regina brought an arm around Bae's waist. Gold did a teleport spell. All three disappeared from the room.  
***********************************************************************************************

When Henry exited the school he was thankful the evacuation plan was followed. All the children and teachers were well away from the school, scattered around the grounds. Ava gave him a sympathetic look as he walked past, still carrying Grace. She'd stopped struggling, as had Hope in Roland's arms, but both girls were still crying, as was Roland now, but silently. Henry held onto a determined belief in his mother to keep in control.

Henry set Grace down, and Roland let go of Hope. The two girls flung their arms around each other and continued to weep. Roland shuddered to hold back more vocal crying. Eimi and Douglas pulled him into a three way embrace.

"It's okay let it out now." Eimi said softly.

"Yeah, it's better if you do, you'll make yourself sick, holding it in." Douglas soothed.

Roland gasped and let out a whimper, that he muffled by pressing his face first into Douglas' chest, then Eimi's.

Henry turned away and gripped his hands into fists and took a deep breath. Mom would be okay, she'd fix it.

A jeep squealed into the parking lot near where they were standing. Robin leapt out of the Ranger vehicle and ran to them.

"Regina? Where is she?" He asked Henry, dread pooling in his stomach.

"She got everyone out of the class; she's taking on Gold, alone."

"Damn. No time to get anyone else too?"

"No. He brought mercenary soldiers in. My other mom and everyone else are dealing with them."

Robin ran his hand through his hair in frustration. "Anyone hurt?"

"Don't think so."

Grace and Hope saw that their father was here and ran to him, throwing their arms around him.

"Daddy, mommy's in the school! " Hope cried out.

"She's fighting Mr. Gold all alone!" Grace shouted in anxiety.

"Henry told me." Robin struggled with competing urges, staying here, making sure his children were safe, or run to try to help Regina.

Henry understood the conflicted look on Robin's face. "I'll go, Robin. See if mom's okay. He's least likely to attack me since I'm his grandson."

Robin nodded. "Still, be careful. If they're still fighting stay back."

"I will." Henry forced himself to walk calmly back into the school.

****************************************************************************************************

"Still no word from Regina?" David asked Emma.

"Nothing. She was in the classroom facing off with Gold last I heard."

David grimaced. "No other solutions then, for now, have to put them in jail. How long do we have with your group sleep curse?" He asked Maleficent.

"With this small a group, possibly three days."

"Minimum, how much?"

"Twenty-four hours, but probably more. I can't be sure of three days, but at least one."

"Okay. So do you know the forgetting potion ingredients and do we have enough for ten people?" Emma asked.

"There are variations. I have one, but I haven't used it here. Regina has."

"I have one, but it's based on the old fairy formula. I wouldn't have enough." Tinkerbelle said

"What about Rebecka?" David mused.

"She might, but we'll like you said, we'll have to put these people in jail until we know."

******************************************************************************************************

The deadly quiet disturbed Henry, not a sound coming from the classroom. It was with a mix of dread and relief when he saw the classroom was empty. That meant mom was still alive, but the battle was elsewhere now. Where though?

He took out his phone. Robin first. Hopefully Robin had it with him. It would be easier to just tell him over the phone. Let Robin tell Grace and Hope the news in a way it wouldn't scare them even more. He hit the button. "Robin, good news and bad news."

"Tell me.' Robin said in a calm tone.

"Good news, I'm pretty sure mom's okay. There's no blood in here. Bad news, the fight's somewhere else now. No one's in the classroom. There's no more damage in here than when I got everyone else out, so it happened pretty soon after."

"Could we find them with a locator spell?"

"We'd have to go back home to get something to use."

"Eating up time."

"There's another spell. I saw it in a book; do you have a map in the jeep?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, let me grab a couple other things on the way back to you."

*****************************************************************************************************

A few minutes later Henry returned. "Robin, it needs a drop of Grace's blood. It has to be a blood relative and Grace is closest one."

"Okay, if Grace is okay with it."

"To find mommy, anything."

Henry took out a covered beaker with the spell ingredients steaming in it- luckily he remembered mom's version which just needed a few common ingredients, plus a sewing needle he'd got from the drama classroom, and a sterilizing alcohol pad and bandaid from the first aid cabinet.

"Ah, I believe I've heard of this spell." Robin said as he found a couple of small rocks and weighted the map down on the flat top of a low wall.

Grace gasped when the needle pierced her finger, but calmly squeezed a few drops of blood into the potion. The potion turned into a jelled substance, which moved when Henry poured it onto the map.

"New York City"

Robin grimaced. Not a place with happy associations for either himself or Regina.

"It makes sense. He knows it well and it's a ley line nexus point."

Robin smiled faintly in spite of the situation "So you understand the ley line things? I kind of understand the basics, but when Regina starts talking about nexus points and things like that, I'm lost."

"Yeah I get it. He had to have used that magic to teleport that far in this world. "

"Regina's the only one with any advanced ley line magic here."

"Yeah, we'd have to drive or fly and it'd still take hours even if we flew."

"So mama has to fight Mr. Gold on her own, nobody can help her?" Hope said, heartbrokenly.

"Is that true, daddy?" Grace added, tears rewelling in her eyes.

"The Guardians will. They would have felt him pull the ley line magic. They'll figure out where he is and come to help mom." Henry said, assuredly.

"Sure hope they get there fast." Roland said.

"Me too." Both Robin and Henry said.


	9. Resolution Chapter 9

Resolution Chapter 9

"Not a bright move, dearie." Gold sneered at Regina.

Regina glared at him, then stood up.

Bae allowed Regina to step slightly away, but clung tightly to her hand.

Regina gave her hand a reassuring light squeeze.

"Bae, come to your father. I won't hurt you. You can have anything you want here. You want to stay here, don't you?" Gold used a soft and gentle tone with his daughter.

Bae shook her head no and moved in close to Regina.

Gold looked back up at Regina with hate. "Release my daughter." He said with a cold fury.

"No. She doesn't want to be here. She's terrified of you. "

"You turned her against me."

"No. I never spoke about you to her. "

"You allowed the other children to poison her against me. You are the mayor. You are a mother of one of my daughter's friends. You did nothing to stop the stories." He threw a blast of energy at Regina faster than she could react.

Regina collapsed to the floor, Bae screamed.

Someone screamed, Enrique dully noted as his life force faded. Oh it's Emma…

Emma rushed up to Enrique. Damn, damn, damn. That knife went in his heart. He's the only paramedic here with healer magic. Emma slammed the mercenary solider back to the pavement. She heard a crack, she'd probably killed him… no one counted on any of these mercenary soldiers having magic, much less magic enough to wake himself up from Maleficent's sleep spell. Emma stopped Enrique's blood loss with her light magic, but that wound was already fatal. But at least he'd die in the hospital not here on the street, miles from town.

Maleficent boosted the strength of the sleep spell, but fought to control her murderous rage. Enrique was one of the few people in Storybrooke that never looked at her with fear or judgment.

Enrique was checking on the vitals of the mercenaries, as they were going to have to be held in Storybrooke's prison until enough memory potion could be made. Enrique had come around to the last one. The man abruptly sat up and stabbed Enrique in the heart.

David jumped into the open back door of the ambulance and quickly got the gurney out. He and Emma carefully picked Enrique up and laid him on the gurney. Enrique had come out alone in the ambulance.

"I'll drive him back" David said solemnly. "I'm used to driving my truck, so I'm the best choice."

Emma nodded and let him slide into the driver's seat. She jumped out and let him hit the siren and floor it back towards town.

Regina woke up in a place that was unpleasantly familiar, even if the particular room wasn't. "No."

"Stole the word from my mouth, sis." Zelena walked into Regina's line of sight. "You're not staying here, I'm sending you back. This is my kingdom now."

"You can send me back."

"Your body hasn't all shut down yet, so yeah."

"It doesn't seem quite as hellish, you do that?"

"My kingdom now, I decide how it looks."

"Did my breaking the curse on our family-"

"Make it easier to stay in control?" Zelena gave a genuine smile "Thanks sis."

"I'm glad. " Regina realized she actually was. "So you're Queen Persephone?"

"Not hardly. I rule by myself, and our mother was no Demeter."

Regina chuckled, that was one point they'd been able to reconcile on before Zelena died, how they felt about Cora. The restored memory they got in the Underworld ended Zelena's psychotic abandonment jealousy directed at Regina.

"If anyone's Demeter, that's you." Zelena laughed. "Now I'm going to use a bit of my power to not just get you back there, but able to keep being the hero. Belle's kid is terrified; you go keep him from her."

"Thank you. I mean it."

"I know you do." Zelena gave her a hint of a smile. "When you do die, you won't come here. You'll go where your dad is."

"So we won't see each other again? Can you not do like my father could a couple of times, be a ghost at your grave?"

"I can, actually do more than he can, but I didn't think you'd want to see me. I know no one else does. Not even my daughter." Zelena said bitterly.

"I never said anything against you to her."

"I know. But she knows stories from other children. Their parents made sure they knew."

"So you saw?"

"Not everything, but enough. I'm glad Robin's son got revenge on that brat."

"Robin and I thought it was funny and ingenious."

"I'm glad he loves Hope."

"With all his heart, always has, same as he loves the others, even Henry."

"Tell Hope her other mommy loves her. Please, sis?"

"I will."

Regina gasped and came to. Alive, but not quite kicking, sis. Regina thought, wincing with the pain of some broken bones, it felt like, and a nauseating dizziness that kicked in with her abrupt movement to a seated position.

Bae's eyes went wide when Regina gasped and sat up.

"See Bae, she's not dead. So come over here to papa. I promise I won't hurt her again if you come here."

Bae shook her head. "No daddy. You're as bad as the other kids say. I hate you! You hurt Ms. Mills really bad. I want to be with mommy not you."

Regina was amazed at Bae's brave words, she could see the girl was visibly shaking with fear, but she'd still said them. Which Rumple would react to his own child's condemnation, the father or the Dark One?

Rumple's expression contorted with anguish hearing "I hate you" directed at him. He'd heard that phrase from his son one time, shortly before they were separated across realms for all those years. "Bae, you don't hate me. Come with me."

"No."

Rumple's expression changed to anger again, he glared at Regina. "Get away from my daughter."

"Can't."

"Thought you'd grown past that self-destructive streak, dearie."

"Not self-destruction. I can't."

Rumple smirked then. "Not wise, using up all your magic, can't even heal that cut on your leg."

Regina grimaced at the mocking, but it had changed his mood to a less dangerous one. He was gearing up to verbally tear her down now. She could survive that and Bae would be in no danger. He also might be so focused on that he wouldn't notice what she felt- other Guardians were nearby and getting closer by the second. She might be done magic wise for the day, but they wouldn't be.

"Look at the oh so powerful light magic teacher now. Drained out of magic, and can't even get off the floor. Regina, you'll never equal me in power. Light magic is weak."

Regina carefully kept her expression blank. Let him think he's won, let him gloat. We'll soon see how 'weak' light magic is…

David jumped out and ran in the Emergency room doors as soon as he stopped the ambulance.

"Get your best team out to the ambulance now, Enrique was stabbed in the heart! We stopped the bleeding but that's all we could do!"

A surgeon taking a break immediately ran out, the admissions station called for anyone available. Seconds later, ten doctors and nurses were running to assist.

David watched the group run back past him pushing the gurney. After they got in the elevator, he turned back to the desk. The admissions staff was struggling to regain their professional demeanor, shock and horror was clear on their faces. "Enrique's married, right? I know he has a daughter."

"Yes, Valeria is his wife; she works in the records department." An older woman, David vaguely recognized, replied.

"Oh god, this is her late night, she's here." A younger man replied, shock still showing on his face.

"Where is the records department? I'll go and tell her." David asked

Regina felt a rush of energy; she knew Rumple would feel it too. He turned toward the door. Suddenly nine people appeared in the room. Regina recognized the Dragon and a couple of others among the group. Immediately they flung a near blinding bolt of light magic toward Rumple. He deflected it, but he showed surprise at the power.

Regina motioned Bae closer "Stay low and close to me."

The battle raged for some time, but finally, to Rumple's shock they immobilized him.

A middle aged African American woman Regina knew was called Cherie, stepped away from the other Guardians and came over to them. Close up Regina could see the fatigue in her face. "I have a bit of healer's magic. Let me at least start the healing."

"As long as you can spare it, Cherie."

"Ah, you remembered my name! Most people seem to forget it until they seen me a few times. We just met that once. I'm impressed."

"I was a queen in the Enchanted Forest. We have to remember lots of people."

"I guess you did!" Cherie grinned.

Once the healing process began, Regina stood up. "So what was the final decision?"

"Take back all the energy he's stolen, send it where it belongs, then banish him to his mother's realm."

"The Black Fairy's realm?"

"Yes. There's already a protective spell that allows people in, but none can get out. "

"This is Gold you're talking about; he'll figure a way to get out."

"But not for a while, it'll buy us time. We've taken that into account."

"Okay." Regina thought, well it's a temporary, and maybe best solution, but he'll be out for revenge on the Guardians when he does return…

David had seen Enrique with his daughter Leira at the PTA meetings but he didn't recall what Enrique's wife, Valeria looked like. Leira had her father's copper skin tone and looked a lot like him. He saw a woman with a medium olive skin tone and straight black hair working alone in the records department. Something about her face reminded him of someone, but he couldn't think of whom. Valeria saw him approaching and opened the department window.

"Can I help you?" She said with a polite smile.

"Are you Valeria?"

"Yes." Valeria's smile faded to a neutral expression.

"Your husband Enrique was stabbed, they have him in surgery." David said in his gentlest tone.

"No, no, no." Valeria stood up abruptly, in shock, then froze in panic, wild eyed. She began to hyperventilate.

"Hey, do you want me to take you up there? I know you work here but if you need me to help you…"

Valeria shook her head no, and slowly got herself under control. She sat back down and called the desk in the surgery department. "How's Enrique?"

"Stable. But Valeria, it's fatal. I'm sorry."

"I had a feeling it would be. Leira's in our child care. Should I go to her first and bring her down? Is he conscious?"

"Semi. He's on the highest dosage of everything. Since its fatal we wanted him to be as comfortable as possible."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Go ahead and bring Leira down. He looks okay, considering. They stopped the bleeding at the scene, so we could stabilize him without much stress."

"How long does he have?"

"Maybe a couple of days. You've already been given the rest of the week off, Tim made sure of that for you."

"Good, thanks.

Regina pulled out her phone. She knew Robin didn't like to drive outside of Storybrooke. She and Bae could take the train as far as Brunswick, Maine. Then he or Belle, who also didn't like to drive outside of Storybrooke, could pick them up. Regina knew Belle would be frantic to get her daughter back; where Robin, once he knew everyone was okay would probably decide to wait for them to get back.

Before she could hit the dial icon the Dragon said "No need, we can get you back home similarly to how you left. Now that the ley lines have most of their stolen energy back this should be easy."

"What are you planning on doing?" Regina looked at him curiously.

"While the ley lines in this realm aren't as powerful as in the Enchanted Forest and Mr. Gold misused them; we can send you home by the ley lines. But the correct way, allowed under these circumstances." The Dragon took Cherie's hand, Cherie put her other hand in young man's hand. This continued until 6 people were in a line. Now, Regina you hold Bae close to you, like how you came here; then hold Sam's hand."

The young woman with light tan skin and bright dyed pink hair at the end of the line, smiled and nodded.

"And then?"

"When you are ready, think about some place in Storybrooke very familiar to you."

"Ah, I get it. Each one of you is a link toward the Storybrooke ley line."

"Yes."

Regina almost chuckled aloud, she knew exactly where.

Regina did laugh when she and Bae arrived back, right in front of Granny's.

Bae began to giggle too. "It worked!"

"It sure did! Now let me call your mother."

"Don't have too, here she comes."

"Bae!" Belle ran up and hugged her daughter tight. Then looked up at Regina "Thank you." Then Belle's expression turned solemn, "Rumple, what happened to him?"

"The Guardians came and stopped his madness. He's still alive. They banished him to the Black Fairy's realm."

"He'll get out. I know Rumple."

"I know. But there wasn't really any other option. They even said it was to buy them time. It will be years though, so hopefully we can all come up with a better solution by then."

Belle nodded. "Thank you again, Regina."

Bae hugged Regina "Ms. Mills, you're the bravest person I know."

"Thank you, Bae."

Regina watched mother and daughter walk away hand in hand. She smiled and pulled out her phone.

"Robin, I'm okay, so's Bae. Belle's already taking her home. I'm in front of Granny's. I'll tell you more when you get here. I'll go ahead and order. I assume all the children are with you?"

"Yes. I'm at the school. Hold on, your daughters are demanding to speak to you-"

Regina laughed.

"Mommy! Are you okay?" Both girls chorused.

"Yes I am, sweethearts. Bae is okay too. I'll tell all of you about it when you get to Granny's."

"Okay!"

After a moment Robin was back on the phone. "Henry's gone to pick up the twins, but he'll be there shortly after us."

"Okay."

Shortly after everyone's dinner arrived, Emma walked into Granny's with Killian.

"I heard you got back safely, from Belle."

"Yes." Regina smiled.

"I want to know what happened, but later. Regina, we need your help with that memory potion. Can you make up a large batch, fairly quickly?"

"The mercenary group Gold hired, right?"

Emma nodded.

Regina mentally went over her inventory. "Yeah, probably by tomorrow morning I should have enough."

"Okay, good. But something else happened. We better talk about it outside, if you don't mind."

Regina saw Hope and Grace had gone back to talking about some characters on a show they watched, after waving at Emma when she came in. The twins were playing with their food and were a complete mess. Henry was half watching them and paying attention to what Emma was saying. Henry knew what it was about; Grandma Snow called and told him while he was walking to the daycare. It was tough not to tell Robin, mom, Roland, Eimi and Douglas but he knew the news about Enrique could wait a bit. Roland and his partners might have heard too and were doing the same thing. Almost everyone he knew liked Enrique. It would hit the town hard. Tough funeral to get through for all of them.

"Regina. Enrique got stabbed through the heart by one of those Blackwater type guys. We saved Enrique from bleeding out, but it's fatal."

"Did Rebecka look at him? Our young healers?"

"Yeah. They agree with the doctors, he'll probably last another day or two. His wife and kid are there with him. No one else besides doctors and nurses are allowed in."

Regina closed her eyes. "I know this is true, but I hate it. The one who attacked him?"

"I got a bit too forceful throwing him away from Enrique. He's dead."

"Are you okay?"

"I'll manage. Killian and I talked about it."

"Okay."

"Once you have enough of the memory potion, I have an idea for how to deal with getting the Blackwater types away from here. Far enough away they'll have no idea why they ended up where they are."

"Have to combine a sleeping potion with it. Any spell will wear off as soon as you cross the town line. Potions are like medications, they'll last a certain amount of time, no matter where. But like medicine the effect will be individual. It's risky. I better make the sleeping potion strong."

"Risk to that too, I'm guessing."

"Yes, it could leave them in a coma or potentially even kill them if they aren't healthy. But we're not risking your safety. I'm sure your parents, Henry and your husband will agree. The risk of causing a coma or killing those mercenaries is on my shoulders."

"Okay. How long do you think it might take to have that much ready?"

"Combining the two potions, then getting enough of it in the right balance; might take a couple of days for it to blend right."

"Alright. Those kids you let stay here, they've come up with something that might help set up how I'm planning on leaving Gold's solider boys. Make it look like they wrecked when they all come to. Some kind of remote control thing that uses the electronics of the MRAP against it."

"Tell me you aren't doing this alone."

"I'm not; Killian's following right behind the MRAP in the car. We'll drive back that way."

"Alright, but make sure their guns are disarmed and there's no hidden knives they can get to quick, just in case."

Emma laughed. "Mom and Dad already said the same thing. It's already taken care of."

"Good. Let's hope everything works out."

Despite her assurances to everyone Emma was tense the for the 10 mile drive outside of Storybrooke. She knew of a big drop off at a curve where she'd stage the turn over crash. She parked the MRAP with about 500 feet from the prospective crash site. The dead guy was made to look like he'd died in the crash, sitting in the front passenger seat. Rebecka had preserved the body from any decay, but that spell ended as soon as the MRAP crossed the town line. It was creepy driving with a dead guy right beside her. Emma got out of the vehicle with relief.

"You okay, love?" Killian asked, his own relief showing. They'd made it past the worst part.

"Okay. Let's get this done and go home."

Emma and Killian moved one of the unconscious guys into the driver's seat and unbuckled everyone else. Emma had looked at the seat belts and could tell they hadn't been used so everyone would be unbuckled in the staged crash of the MRAP. She left the engine on and unlocked the emergency brake and put it in neutral. She and Killian then walked back to their car and pulled out the remote device.

"Hope this works." Emma said tensely.

"Me too." Killian nodded solemnly.

Emma hit a button and the MRAP started moving. Then she held down the course button with one finger while flipping the speed switch with another. The MRAP went to its top speed and flew off the road, flipping over with a horrendous crash.

"As awful as these guys had to be, I hope that didn't kill any more of them. Don't want that on my conscious." Emma said.

"Not safe to check, better to feel you didn't. Let's get home, love. We'll drink some rum and try to put it out of our heads."

"Alright." Emma knew it would bother her the rest of her life. Once they got a couple of miles back toward Storybrooke she called the nearest town south of them and anonymously reported the "accident".

"Feel better now?" Killian asked softly.

"Maybe a bit"

The visitation for Enrique was a week later. On the way to the funeral home, Regina asked, "Robin, do you know the name of Enrique's wife? I just realized I don't." She blushed with embarrassment; she prided herself on knowing the majority of Storybrooke's residents, even the ones who didn't come over with the first curse. But her life had been far busier since then, so she knew there were Storybrooke citizens she didn't know. Enrique's wife was one of those.

"I don't either. Don't even know what she looks like. All I'll heard is she's very shy and hates big crowds. Considering how many people like Enrique this is going to be very difficult for her."

Regina and Robin walked in the room with their kids. Regina went over to sign the condolence book while Robin went to pay his respects to Enrique's family. Regina knew Enrique had come over with the second curse. She recalled seeing him in the hospital when Snow was giving birth to Neal. And she'd seen Enrique's daughter playing with Robin's nephew Cedric; she looked a lot like Enrique and her name was Leira. Regina smiled; she did at least know the daughter's name.

"Enrique's wife is called Valeria, she's here. I spoke to her. She's about your size, looks around my sister's age, straight black hair, around shoulder length, skin tone a bit darker olive than yours." Robin said whispering in Regina's ear. He'd come up behind her and put his arm around her waist as he whispered the information in her ear.

"Valeria?" Regina's mind raced. It couldn't be. The only Valeria she'd known from the Enchanted Forest was her uncle Salvador and Aunt Antonia's youngest child. Mother said they'd all died, all four of her uncles and their families. Mother had used more magic than Regina ever had seen her do- getting them out safely during King George's invasion. Uncle Salvador was Daddy's second oldest brother. He and Aunt Antonia had twin boys older than her-Carlos and Julio, and a baby girl, Valeria…

"Yeah, Valeria."

"Okay." Regina looked for the woman Robin described. As soon as she saw her, she knew. This was her cousin. She looked a lot like Uncle Salvador but with Aunt Antonia's coloring.

"Valeria? I'm Regina. But I'm sure you knew that." Regina smiled.

"Hello Madam Mayor. I'm so surprised how many people considered Enrique a friend. I've never seen so many people in one room." Valeria said softly.

Regina sat down beside her. "Valeria, was your mother named Antonia and your father named Salvador?"

"Yes. How did you know? My father died when I was just a baby. There was a war. Mama had to flee with just me in her arms. But mama told me his name was Salvador, yes. Did you know them before the war? You must have been pretty young then."

"Valeria, you're my cousin. I loved carrying you around when you were a baby." Regina smiled, that was one the few positive childhood memories she had that wasn't about her father. "I adored you. My other cousins were boys and older than me."

"Mother never talked much about what her life was before. Now I understand why. I thought she might have been married to a noble though. Some of the things she did say…"

"I don't know if my mother or father ever tried to find out if anyone else survived. Mother seemed sure we were the only ones that got out."

"Mother said all our family died. Mother's family had been royal jewelers, she'd learned the skill before she married my father. Once mother found a safe place to stay she worked in a jeweler's shop for a few years, then we moved on. Then mother met a blacksmith and they fell in love. I had a little brother, Sandor, but he drowned when he was 5. My stepfather, Thomas, died the next winter when I was nine. Mother and I stayed on. She could do the light blacksmith work and used her jeweler skills to repair and customize armor. I learned a bit from her but I didn't have her skill. She died when I was sixteen."

"How?"

"A sickness in the middle of winter. It was during a snowstorm that lasted over a day. Mother passed away shortly before the storm ended. After mother died, I left that village and wandered for a while. I met Enrique a few years later, about a year before the dark curse. We weren't swept up in it because we were in the Red Queen's kingdom at the time. Enrique was a low level healer who used a lot of herbs. Enrique was having problems finding an herb. A peddler told us it was readily available in the Red Queen's realm. He showed us a secret portal he knew about and we went there. We got frozen in time like everyone else did there under the Red Queen's spell. When the dark curse broke we decided to go back to the Enchanted Forest. Then about a year later we were brought here with the second curse. Enrique was hired on at the hospital, then he got me hired on. Nine years ago we had Leira." Valeria teared up…

Regina hugged her long lost cousin. "You've got family in me, my family; there's quite a few of us now. Anything you need, just ask." Regina knew all too painfully what it was like to have people she loved die.

"Thank you" Valeria whispered and returned the hug. "I wish I wasn't so shy, maybe we could have met sooner."

"As my husband says, it's about timing. Maybe we were meant to meet now."

"Fate, you think? I lost my husband, but found my cousin." Valeria withdrew from the hug and gave Regina a tremulous smile.

Regina squeezed her hand reassuringly. She already felt a fierce protectiveness toward this long lost cousin. "You look a lot like Uncle Salvador."

Valeria nodded. "My mother thought so too." She looked thoughtfully at Regina "We look a bit alike I think."

"Yeah, our grandfather thought I looked more like Salvador than either of your brothers. They both looked more like Aunt Antonia."

"I wish I knew what they looked like."

Regina smiled gently. "I think I can help a bit." Regina brought up the faint memories of Julio and Carlos in her mind. Then her smile grew a bit more when she recalled watching a painter doing a family portrait right after Valeria was born. She recalled the finished portrait hanging in the castle. Regina did a small wave of her hand and a tablet sized version of the portrait appeared in her other hand. "I don't think it's an exact recreation but that's the family portrait they did after you were born. " Regina handed the small family portrait to Valeria.

Valeria smiled faintly at the image, then exclaimed, "Oh, Leira really does have mother's eyes. I thought she did, but mother's been gone so many years now. Thank you for this." She hugged Regina again.

Regina motioned Robin over. Robin sat down on the couch beside Regina. When Valeria released the hug Regina nodded toward Robin. "Valeria, this is my husband, Robin." Then she looked directly at Robin, "This is my cousin Valeria. I adored her when she was a baby. I loved carrying her around and playing baby games with her. She was my favorite cousin. We both thought all the rest of the family died when King George invaded. Aunt Antonia, Valeria's mom and Valeria survived."

"But mother never talked about being part of a royal court. I think to keep us safe. I never knew I was related to anyone else living."

"The Enchanted Forest was a very dangerous place, I can understand why" Robin nodded.

"Yes, what happened to our family is a perfect example. Your mother kept you safe." Regina said.

Regina and Robin ended up staying the full visitation hours with Valeria. They introduced their children to her; including Henry, when he showed up a bit later with Violet and the twins. Henry left shortly after, and came back with food from Granny's, toward the end of the visitation. By then it was just the family.

As they were walking out to their cars Regina hugged her cousin again "I meant what I said." Anything you need, just ask. "

Valeria nodded. "I will."

Regina sat next to Valeria at the funeral and protected her shy grieving cousin from being overwhelmed by the crowd of people there. Regina started frequently stopping by with the girls after their school was over for the day. Hope and Grace quickly adopted their cousin Leira as an addition to their circle of friends and family. Sometimes Robin's sister Rowena would come along with Cedric too. Cedric was already a friend of Leira's, so it helped give Leira a small sense of continuity during the grieving over the loss of her father.

Rowena did a portrait sketch of Regina and Valeria during one of those visits. Then brought it back as a painting she gave to Valeria. Valeria immediately hung it up on her wall. When Valeria was up to it she came over to Regina and Robin's house with Leira. On that first visit Henry brought out his old camera and took a family portrait. Copies of the photo soon graced the walls of all the family's homes.


	10. Resolution Chapter 10

Resolution Chapter 10

3 months later

"Are you sure you're ready to move out?" Regina asked Roland.

"Yep! Don't worry it's not like I won't be home plenty often. I'm not passing up your lasagna!" Roland grinned.

"If you're sure…"

"We'll be fine."

"I know but…"

Roland hugged her tight. "Always love you mama Regina" He smiled his most charming dimpled smile.

"You know when you say that, all I see is the five year old boy who first called me that."

"The apartment is a ten minute walk from your office…"

"Is that an invitation? You know if it is, I'll be over at least once a week."

"I'd like that. So'd Eimi and Douglas."

"You sure? I don't want to intrude, you are, as you tell me, 'all grown up now'."

"You know they like you almost as much as I do."

"Okay."

Regina knew Robin had already had a similar conversation with Roland. Separation anxiety wasn't just kids on their first day of school! And it wasn't like Roland was leaving town. Much closer to home than Henry and Violet were when they moved into the old Apprentice's house, shortly before their wedding.

The high pitched squeals of laughter of Dillon and Zita grew louder. Regina and Roland turned around and watched the twins having the time of their lives with their birthday present from Robin and Regina. The two were riding on the driver's seat of the pony cart, being pulled by their miniature ponies. Rebecka and Mulan's nearly two year old daughter Xian was giggling, sitting in the back seat of pony cart. Regina was proud how well the twins were doing, despite their shrieking laughs, guiding the cart. The ponies were very placid natured though. Violet was walking beside the cart, keeping an eye on where the ponies were going.

"Bet they'll be doing dressage in a couple of years." Roland grinned.

"Yeah, I think so too. But I'll leave that up to Violet, she's their mother. I'm merely the grandmother."

Roland laughed "Merely the grandma. There's no merely with you, mom."

"Do you think I'm overly involved? You know the situation, but still I don't want Violet and Henry to think I'm trying to take over."

"No, that's not what I meant." Roland said reassuringly. "I meant you love all of us, give all your heart to us. You even did that for me back in the Enchanted Forest right after you met me. Best time of my life there was when you were there. I had a mom again. I barely remembered my mom. But you came into dads and my life, and even though you and dad argued a lot, you always made sure I was okay. Then it got even better with you being my mom here in Storybrooke."

"Not while my sister was masquerading as your mother, not while Robin was gone though."

"Despite that, you did everything you could for me. I was worried for you when dad was gone. Henry said you were really sad and no one knew how to fix it. Then Little John and the Merry Men took me back to the Enchanted Forest. They thought it would be better for me emotionally, but it wasn't. I worried about you being so sad and missed you. I thought maybe if I was there I could help you be less sad just like I did during the missing year when you were separated from Henry."

Regina hugged Roland "You are going to make me cry."

"Ah mom, I knew you would anyway." Roland chuckled.

"Are you sure you don't want us to help you get a house? The offer is still open. Henry said he'd pitch in some money too."

"We're fine, mom. Eimi, Douglas and I like living in an apartment."

"Hmph. You don't have to live out the struggling actors' lifestyle in every detail."

"We'll be fine mom. If we need help I know I can ask any time."

"See that you do." She said mock sternly.

"So, mom, just what did grandma and grandpa get the twins for their birthday?" Henry asked his other mother Emma.

"It wasn't just them, Killian and I went together on it too. You'll see soon enough." Emma grinned.

Henry groaned inwardly, so not only did mom not hold back grandma and grandpa but encouraged them along with Killian. Henry had a bad feeling that this was starting a competition between the two sides of his family on presents for the twins. He could probably talk to them to not to make it a completion, but it was too late for this year.

"Things happening pretty quick out there."

"In Washington?"

"Yeah. A lot faster than last time. After 2016. Ugh, that took almost two years to fix. This time everything just kind of fell apart when Gold got sent off."

"Yeah. Special Election in August, so less than a year this time. Thankfully congress had an opposition party majority this time so Speaker of the House is acting president until after the election. Hope this is the last time this happens though."

"Me too. Regina wants to do a town hall on it, even though we're not affected by it."

"Mom just wants to make sure everyone is okay. You know her. Takes being mayor uber responsibly."

"She wants that blogger we took in to do an informational bit at the town hall."

"Oh yeah, Lita. She's a good kid."

"She's just a few years younger than you, kid." Emma grinned.

Henry shrugged. "Being a teacher and dad makes me feel older."

"Oh yes, you're so ancient now, a quarter of a century old."

Henry laughed "Well, I will be twenty-six in August."

"I have clothes older than you." Emma teased.

"Yeah that red jacket that's falling apart at the seams." Henry teased back.

"It's not falling apart, it's just broken in."

"Very broken in" Henry laughed.

******************************************************************************8

The party was being held at the park. Snow had decided it would be a community party. Regina gave in once it was agreed it would also be a party for Roland's graduating class. The extended family was becoming so large it was almost a community party already. Regina was keeping an eye on her shy cousin Valeria and her adorable daughter Leira, making sure she wasn't overwhelmed by well-meaning folks. The community still mourned Enrique and wanted to help Valeria and her daughter. Right now Snow was talking to her in the gazebo. Regina had suggested the gazebo to Valeria because it would limit the number of people that could crowd around. Leira was playing with Cedric near the lake. The two were watching Cedric's remote control miniature sailboat go back and forth across the shallow part of the lake. Rowena was watching them nearby in case of a mishap.

Robin chuckled walking up behind her. "I overheard David giving Roland tips on apartment living in Storybrooke."

Regina rolled her eyes and turned toward Robin, cuddling up as he embraced her. "Do I want to know what David said?"

"Nothing to worry about, just pretty basic stuff. I think Roland was just humoring him, pretending to listen."

"It's what I do." Regina smirked.

"So, I know you still feel concerned about what's going on outside our town. You think they've finally learned."

"Hopefully, at least for a while."

"So you think the special election will turn out positive?"

Regina nodded. "I thought they'd learn from what happened in 2016, but this time it fell apart even faster. It did that because Gold set it up to. I think he was going to try to take over when it did. But with him exiled, once everything he set up fell apart, the agencies designed to investigate this kind 0f thing went all out. Thankfully, congress was controlled by the other party this time, so that speeded things up too. The news media had to start reporting on it, so most people know something bad happened again."

"You want to make sure everyone here knows what happened out there "

"Yes. It did affect us this time."

"Enrique."

"Yeah. So people need to understand what happened, and that it appears to be getting fixed out there as well as here."

"That's why you want Lita to talk to everyone."

"Yes." Regina looked over to where Lita and Davu were sitting with their families at the picnic benches. Lita and Davu had married a couple of months ago. Lita and Davu were among the few people who had begun visiting places outside of Storybrooke since the political situation changed for the better in March. With Regina's permission, Lita's family began to visit Storybrooke on occasion. Her grandmother, mother and younger brother Laurent were here today. Lita had one surviving great grandmother but the 98 year old woman was too frail to travel anymore. But Lita had taught her great grandmother how to use the internet and Regina had met her over the phone. Lita's little brother Laurent and Grace had developed a friendship. It seemed to bring out the tomboy side of her youngest child even more. The two were currently playing some kind of two person dodgeball with a bounceball belonging to the twins. Both children's clothes were dirty and grass stained. Grace had changed out of the light purple sundress she'd worn earlier for the family picture. Thankfully, Grace was now in jeans and t-shirt like Laurent. She'd never even think of telling her daughter anything was wrong with her nature like her mother had. If Grace preferred being a tomboy, so be it. Grace would have the freedom to be one that had been taken away from her.

Regina empathized with the people who just wanted to stay in relative safety in Storybrooke, never venture out again. She had experienced that feeling several times. The first time was just 4 days after she'd made the decision she could be a good mother to Henry, driven back home from Boston with him in the infant car seat. Before Henry was born she hadn't paid much attention to the world outside of Storybrooke. But after she brought him home in mid August she had found herself curious about this world she'd brought him home from. She began to watch the news from outside of Storybrooke…. September 11. 2001. She'd watched the TV news in frozen horror, holding newborn Henry in her arms. What was this realm she'd cursed them all to? She wanted no part of anything outside of Storybrooke. She'd keep her son safe from the terrors of this Land Without Magic.

For a time, after the curse broke, Henry's stories about Boston and New York had brought her a bit of curiosity back about this world. Then came the awful trip to New York to rescue Robin and Roland from Zelena. That had definitely soured her on New York, as had it Robin. The fallout of the 2016 election made her protective toward anyone she cared but especially the children, not just her and Robin's now four children, but Robin's niece and nephew, little Neal Nolan, Collette Bae Gold, even Henry's then girlfriend Violet Morgan. She didn't feel safe about anyone traveling outside of Storybrooke until things resolved for the better in 2018. The young people's stories after the past election, manipulated by Gold, had brought some of that back. Yet somehow she'd been more angry than fearful this time, more determined to do something if she could. She hadn't been the only one. Perhaps it was because she knew Gold had been behind it this time.

After things began to right themselves outside of Storybrooke she'd thought they might lose some of their seven college student refugees. But Carl was the only one that left. He'd even offered to let her use the memory potion to make "completely sure" Storybrooke "would stay hidden". Regina had refused. "You earned those memories, even though you aren't staying." She told the young man who'd joined Storybrooke's firefighters on a whim, and found he'd liked the job.

Carl laughed and hugged her "You're every kids' or young adults' mom here. I'll miss this place. It's been a great few months."

"Give me your phone" Regina said, then typed in her cell phone number. "If you ever get in trouble and aren't near where someone can help you, I want you to call me. We'll find you and make sure you're safe." She said, handing Carl back his phone.

"I'm hoping once I finish my chemical engineering degree I can get on someplace where I can make firefighting equipment even better and safer. If I do I promise I'll figure out some way to get it to you for the team here."

"Thank you, I hope so too."

She'd watched him drive away in his car until he was out of sight. She truly did hope his dream came true.

Davu and Lita weren't the only ones that had married in the past three months. Robin's nephew Matthew had married Gian two weeks ago. Snow had persuaded the two to let her plan their wedding. Persuading Gian had taken little work, he was utterly fascinated by Storybrooke and the pasts in the Enchanted Forest.

"Maybe you should retire from teaching and become a full time wedding planner." Regina teased Snow.

"Oh, but I wouldn't know what to do with planning weddings of people I don't know. There's plenty of people in Storybrooke I don't know. Besides, I like teaching."

"You met Gian less than six months ago."

"But he's so open and eager to know about everything. And I've watched Matthew grow up. I know Robin's niece and nephews almost as well as I know your children."

"Especially Roberta, what with her mentoring Neal."

"And his adorable crush on her. He thinks Roberta hung the moon." Snow chuckled.

"Five years is a lot at their age. He'll likely get a more realistic view of her when he's grown."

"Or they'll fall in love." Snow smiled.

"Matching making now?"

"It could happen. Weren't you about Neal's age when you met Daniel?"

"A bit older, and he was just two years older than me." Regina found she could talk about Daniel now, with just a small chord of sadness. "I thought he was so mature and handsome…" Regina smiled faintly.

"Thank you for scaring Phillip Jr off the last day of school." Susie said to Hope. He had become interested in girls late in the school year. But as with most of his other interactions, his attempts to get girls attention were generally overbearing and often unwelcome. Such was the case with Susie Marshall, Hope's former best friend and one sided crush.

Hope hadn't seen Susie since the last day of school and things had been strained between them since Hope had confessed her feelings to Susie early this year. Hope was surprised that Susie had sought her out, despite the rescue from Phillip Jr's unwanted attention. Hope grinned "it was fun."

Susie giggled. "It was! He was so scared!"

It was the end of the school day. Hope knew mom and dad were both coming to pick Grace and her up because it was the last day of school. Roland, Douglas and Eimi were staying late for a party for the graduating class. Hope walked past the hallway where Susie had her locker, glanced that way and saw Phillip Jr was bothering Susie. Hope turned down the hallway and said. "Get away from Susie."

"Go away witch girl. You're a witch just like your mom."

"So what if I am?" Hope felt a surge of anger and boldness. Mom had told her what happened in New York. How Zelena saved her, and wanting Hope to know she loved her too. Ever since then Hope had felt less ashamed about her birth mother, less vulnerable to bullying about it. "You better leave now or I'll turn you into the pig that you are." Hope let her hands glow faintly green.

Phillip Jr scrambled backwards in fear, but then snarled "Witch girl, just like your mom!"

Hope feinted releasing a spell and Phillip Jr fled at top speed.

"I hope he doesn't get you in trouble over that." Susie said

Hope shrugged. "Not worried."

Now two weeks later Susie was here, talking to her. Maybe their friendship hadn't been ruined, just like Matthew told her.

"I'm sorry I don't like you the way you like me, but can we be friends again?" Susie looked at Hope earnestly.

Hope grinned "Sure!"

After about a half hour the twins had been shown how to unharness the ponies from the cart and were following Regina and Violet's lead in brushing them down and feeding them carrots. Then Henry led the ponies to the horse stables near the park. Once Henry got back, Emma went over to the twins and squatted down to their level. "hey kiddos you want to see your present from your other Grandma and her family?

"Yeah!" Both loudly squealed.

Emma winced and stood back up and walked toward the lake. The twins followed her eagerly.

"I don't see it, but I think I know what it is" Robin whispered to Regina as they followed everyone down to the lake.

"I think so too."

Once everyone was gathered at the shoreline, Emma turned to Lita with a grin "Okay, release the mirage field"

Lita pressed a button on a handheld device and suddenly a large rowboat sized simplified replica of the Jolly Roger appeared on the lake. Although the shell of the boat looked a lot like the Jolly Roger, the boat itself was just a sailing rowboat. The rowboat seat was more than large enough for an adult to sit comfortably, as Killian demonstrated for everyone, while small child size seats were in the bow area. Henry was glad he'd worn shorts today as he picked up the twins and carried the excited children to the boat. After the twins were on the boat Killian assisted Henry aboard.

"So it's big enough for both Violet and I to ride along." Henry noted.

"Yes. Emma thought it best we make it a family sized one as they're too young yet to do this on their own."

"You did put life jackets in I hope." Regina said to Emma.

"Of course. Killian?"

"In the footlocker. One for you and Violet as well, if you need them."

Seeing the glares of both Regina and Violet Henry put one on as well. Once Killian pulled up the small anchor the boat began to drift out on its own in the light breeze. Killian furled the sail and Henry controlled the tiller.

Once the boat was out in the center of the lake, Regina turned to Emma and the Charmings. "Okay, let's not make this a competition okay? I think we both went a bit overboard this year. "

"Agreed." David quickly said with relief.

"Did Marco make that? He's getting up there now. Robin and I felt guilty about getting Marco's help with the sleigh-pony cart and it's a much simpler design… but Marco insisted that he must play a part in its creation."

"August did the boat." Emma said. "He convinced Marco to let him. I think Marco did some of the detailing but it's mostly August's work."

"He has his father's skills, I have to say."

"He doesn't think he's as good. But looks good to me."

August had never married nor had children, when asked he said something vaguely about a price he paid. The man still was enigmatic after all these years. Regina suspected he'd known about what the Blue Fairy and Isaac had done for years before it was revealed. The majority of people in Storybrooke that knew August, felt a vague unease about him. Not a sense he was evil though. But would he help or do nothing when needed, and what information was he hiding? Henry and to a lesser degree Emma, were two of the few people that didn't react that way. Regina just felt a general low level annoyance at his game playing. It reminded her too much of Gold.

On the other hand, Marco felt guilt for the part he'd played in separating Emma from her parents. He felt his years of estrangement from August, and their somewhat uneasy parent/child relationship afterward was a just price for his actions. But Marco loved children and loved creating toys for them.

"So how'd you get it out here to the lake without anyone else seeing it?" Regina asked Emma.

"You're not the only one to research spell variants, Regina." Emma grinned. Belle let me look through a spell book Gold left behind. Minor stuff he probably already knew by heart and had no use for."

Belle sighed, "My gift to the twins just looks so inadequate next to a beautiful pony cart and ponies, and that boat."

"Not at all." Regina said. A personalized book collection that they'll cherish is hardly a small thing. You picked ten books a piece for Zita and Dillon based on their personalities and things they like, and not just books for now, but a couple books for when they can read on their own."

"It's important to inspire a love of reading as young as possible."

Regina nodded. "Don't worry about this with the boat and pony cart. We're not turning this into a present competition. I think we just got a bit carried away this year. This is the first year the twins are old enough to understand what birthdays and presents are; that made some of us grandparents get a bit silly. We've agreed to have calmer heads on gifts from now on." Regina smirked ruefully.

"So as the only levelheaded grandparent do I get to be the present arbiter?" Belle smiled.

"Maybe!" Regina laughed.


End file.
